The Basics Of Formating And Styling Table Cells

Table Cells - Draw, Erase, Merge And Alignment

In the previous section I showed you how to create a table and resize its cells by dragging their horizontal and vertical table cell lines. In this section I will continue by showing you how to style (text align and colour) the cells using a new example, an Invoice business stationery example. Colour and Font styling will be used to change the appearance of the invoice.

Begin by creating a new table that contains four columns (four cells across) and five rows (five cells down) - Click on the INSERT Tab (window) and then on the TABLE menu button in order to then select your desired cells (Fig 1.0 below). See the previous section for a better explanation and example.

The key to a successful table, and in particular an invoice, is to know how many columns and rows you will be needing before even creating the table. In other words, the pre-planning works best because if you create a table and then find you want to add a cell and/or row later it can mean messy fiddling about with the table.

Fig 1.0  Hover the mouse pointer over the cells and then click on the last cell to create the table of cells

Once the table of cells has been created the next thing to do is type in your headings. For example, below I am making a generic invoice template for a self-employed person and have therefore typed in headings relevant to many jobs.

The invoice template is actually irrelevant in a way as I'm only designing it to show you how easy it is to create an invoice using a table of cells only. Meaning, your template will probably be different to mine. So don't worry too much about the actual content/data here because it's the creation of the table of cells that is important.

Fig 1.1  Type your desired template text into the relevant cells

When you have entered your specific data/headings into their relevant cells, like those above, the next task is to resize some of the horizontal cells (rows) by dragging their table cell lines downwards - Resizing cells (rows and columns) was covered in-depth in the previous section.

In the example below I've dragged the second horizontal table line downwards in order to create (heighten) enough space for the Logo and Business Address in the top cells. I've also dragged the fifth horizontal table line downwards in order to create (heighten) some space for the Work Carried Out, Description, Amount and Price columns.

Fig 1.2  Resize (heighten) the columns by dragging their horizontal table lines downwards

Now that the Invoice look is taking shape the next task is to widen the Work Carried Out and Description cells (columns), by dragging their vertical table lines rightwards, in order to shorten the Amount and Price cells (columns).

When you widen cells (a column) the cells (column) next to it have to be shrunk in order to spread the space available. For example. Widening the Work Carried Out cells (column) in this example auto-matically shrinks the Description cells (column), to the point where the Description cells (column) can no longer be shortened. On top of this, all of the cells within the Work Carried Out column get widened. This means the cell allocated for the Logo is also widened, but at the expense of shrinking the Description cells (column).

Fig 1.3  Widen the Work Carried Out cells (column) by dragging the second vertical table line rightwards

With the Work Carried Out cells (column) widened you then do the same for the Description cells (column), by dragging the third vertical table line rightwards. Doing so will shrink the Amount cells (column) and therefore force you to widen the Amount cells (column) (Fig 1.5), which in turn will affect the width of the Price cells (column)!

Fig 1.4  Widen the Description cells (column) by dragging the third vertical table line rightwards




Fig 1.5  Widen the Amount cells (column), and Price cells (column) if need be.

To limit this messing around with resizing (widening) you are better off starting from the right-side of your template. That way you can get a good width for the Amount and Price cells (columns) and then split the remaining space between the Work Carried Out and Description cells (columns), as opposed to compromising the width of the Amount and Price cells (columns).

As an example of the just said; In this next example I adjusted the widths for the Amount and Price cells (columns) first and then shrunk the Work Carried Out cells (column) slightly in order to make the Description cells (column) a little wider.

Fig 1.6  An invoice template with realistic spacing for each column

At this point the initial resizing of rows and columns is complete. The only thing to do now is to merge two cells for the Logo area and two cells for the Business Address area. If you try and type a business address into the top-right cell you will have limited space, so the best thing to do is merge those cells into one.

To merge two cells into one cell you first need to be on the LAYOUT Tab (window). So click on the LAYOUT Tab, highlight the two cells and then click on the MERGE CELLS button. Doing so will then turn the two highlighted cells into one cell (Fig 1.8 below).

Fig 1.7  Click on the MERGE CELLS button to merge the highlighted cells into one cell




Fig 1.8  The two highlighted cells have now been merged into one cell

Although the two highlighted cells have now been merged into one cell there still isn't adequate space for a long-ish business address. To rectify this you can draw in one extra cell, by drawing a vertical table line down the center of the top-middle cell, and then merge the cells again.

To do the just said, begin by clicking on the DESIGN Tab (window) and then click on the DRAW TABLE button. Doing so will turn the mouse pointer into a Pencil mouse pointer. The pencil then allows you to draw horizontal and vertical table lines either into existing cells or as new cells.

For this example place the pencil mouse pointer towards the top-center position inside the first cell of the Description column and then click and hold down the left mouse button as you then move (drag) the pencil mouse pointer downwards until a line is drawn between the top and bottom horizontal table lines of that cell. When the vertical table line has been drawn release the left mouse button.

Fig 1.9  Draw a vertical table line down the center of the cell using the pencil mouse pointer

As you draw a vertical, or horizontal, table line a dashed marker line appears (above) to guide your hand steady. Drawing of lines can be frustrating at first, especially if you over draw by going into the next cell, but practise does make perfect.

With the vertical table line drawn (below) the next stage is to merge the right-sided new cell, of the Description column, with the far-right cell that was just merged (as two cells) for the business address. To do this you first need to switch off the DRAW TABLE button, which is a Toggle (Off/On) button, by clicking on the DRAW TABLE button again. This will turn the pencil mouse pointer back into the standard mouse pointer. From there you need to click on the LAYOUT Tab and highlight the cells just mentioned before clicking on the MERGE CELLS button.

Fig 1.10  Click on the MERGE CELLS button to merge the highlighted cells into one cell

You can do the same merging of cells for the left-side cells in order to create more space for the Logo area. Remember, a logo can be an image, some wording or a combination of both. Hence why it is important, where possible and/or applicable, to maximise your space; especially when designing business stationery such as an invoice.

Merging of cells can also be done for highlighted rows, highlighted columns and individually highlighted cells within a column and/or row. Experiment by highlighting some cells and then clicking on the MERGE CELLS button. Here are some more examples.

Fig 1.11  Experiment by highlighting some cells and then clicking on the MERGE CELLS button




Fig 1.12  Merging a row is done by first highlighting the whole row




Fig 1.13  Merging nine cells that comprise of column and row cells




Fig 1.14  It's not always a good idea to merge certain cells!!

As you can see from the last example, it's not always a good idea to merge cells from columns and rows because with the cells becoming one it can mean the information becomes unrecognisable. In this case, not sectioned in a recognisable "invoice template" format. Hence why I say experiment.

Getting back to the proper invoice example. Below I have merged a few more cells ready for the final look. See if you can identify which cells I have merged and more precisely which cells I had to highlight in order to merge them.

Fig 1.15  The final look of the invoice template in terms of merged cells

The last part of this table formatting processing involves hiding/erasing certain cell lines (border lines) ready for printing purposes. When you hide/erase cell lines they do not get printed, which means you can create unique looks for your stationery. In this next example I am going to erase certain cell lines at the bottom of the invoice in order to give its Total a more prominent, classic, invoice look.

For this example you need to be on the DESIGN Tab so that you can click on the ERASER button. Clicking on the ERASER button, which turns the mouse pointer into an Eraser (Rubber) mouse pointer, and then on a cell line (border line) allows you to erase that cell line. In this example I am erasing the bottom cell line (border line) of the cell in the bottom-left corner of the invoice template.

Fig 1.16  Click on a cell line (border line) with the eraser mouse pointer to hide that line from the printer

As you click on a cell line (border line) it will temporarily turn brown, until you release the left mouse button, so that you know which cell is going to be erased. This is because it is possible to erase more than one cell line at a time by dragging the eraser mouse pointer into the next cell, which can be an unwanted action (i.e. a slip of the mouse by you). When you release the left mouse button your chosen cell line becomes hidden/erased, denoted by the light blue dashed gridlines.

With the chances of making mistakes with the eraser being common, my advice is to click and hold down the click for a second or so just to make sure you are erasing the correct cell line(s). If you do accidently move the eraser mouse pointer into the next cell line you can always drag the mouse away in order to readjust/correct your mouse position. Only when you have the correct cell line(s) highlighted in temporary brown should you release the left mouse button.

Fig 1.17  The bottom cell line has been erased, denoted by the light blue dashed gridlines.

In the above example I have already erased the bottom cell line, denoted by the light blue dashed gridlines, and am just about to erase the cell line to the left of it.

Sometimes it's quicker and easier to highlight some cells and then erase/hide their border lines (cell lines) using the Borders And Shading menu. Once you have highlighted some cells you then right click over one of the highlighted cells to bring up the Options (context) menu and select (left click on) the BORDERS AND SHADING menu-item. In this next example I am going to hide (erase) the Logo and Business Address cells.

Fig 1.18  Right click on a highlighted cell and then left click on the BORDERS AND SHADING menu-item

When the Borders And Shading window appears (below) it will automatically be on the BORDERS Tab (window) with the SETTINGS option set to ALL, which means all of the borders (border lines / cell lines) of the currently highlighted cells are currently visible. To erase them all you need to click on the NONE option and then on the OK button.

Fig 1.19  Click on the NONE option and then on the OK button to erase all of the border (cell) lines




Fig 1.20  All borders of the currently highlighted cells have been hidden/erased

Now that the top cells have had their borders (cell lines) hidden/erased it's much easier to see the classic shape of the invoice.

Quite a lot was covered in this section, and the previous section, with regards to creating and formatting a table and its cells; so in the next section I will be adding colour to the invoice and showing a couple more examples of the Borders And Shading window.