Word 2007: Tips for using built-in table styles

I’m still trying to get my head around how to set up custom table styles in Word 2007. I haven’t solved that yet. But while I’ve been testing I found a neat trick you can do with Word 2007’s built-in table styles.

Create a new blank table

1. Go to the Insert tab > Tables group.
2. Click the Table button and drag your cursor to create a blank 5 x 5 table (5 rows, 5 columns).

The number of tables and columns doesn’t really matter — you just need enough to show the effects of turning on/off various settings.

Insert a blank 5 x 5 table

Check the table style options

1. Go to the Design tab and look at the Table Style Options group on the left — some of these options will be selected (1). In a moment, you’ll be turning these options on/off to change what you see in the table styles.
2. Now, take a look at the various styles shown in the Table Style gallery (2).

Table Style Options and Table Style gallery

See how the table looks with a style applied

Hover over the available styles in the gallery and see how your table changes its look.

Apply a table style from the gallery

Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the gallery (3) to see even more table styles in the gallery.

Table styles gallery

Change the table style options

Now, go back to the Table Style Options group and select or turn off various check boxes (4). Open up the thumbnail views in the gallery again and watch how your table columns and rows change according to the Table Style Option settings (5). Neat.

Gallery thumbnails change to reflect the selected options

(The inspiration for this post came from: http://www.uwec.edu/Help/Word07/tb-frmt.htm; link last checked July 2009)