How to make tables in Excel?

admin 11 March 2022

0 40 5 minutes read

Are you taking your first steps on Excel and you are a little lost with its features? It is totally normal! But don’t worry, it won’t take you long to make functional and dynamic tables in this software. All you have to do to get started is to follow the path outlined in this tutorial. This is illustrated to make the process of creating tables as simple as possible. The other good news is that the method presented below is valid on both Windows and Mac versions of this software. Find out now how to make tables in Excel like a pro.

Credit: 123RF

How to create a table in Excel?

Creating tables in Excel is usually done in five major steps.

Step 1: Open or create an Excel document

To get started, open the Excel file that contains your data. You have two options: open the file in question from Windows File Explorer, by double-clicking directly on it, or do it from Excel after opening it.

If you don’t already have such a file, now is the perfect time to create one. To do this, launch Excel from the desktop by double-clicking its shortcut or typing” Excelin the Windows search bar. Complete the opening procedure by selecting the software from the list of results that appears or simply clicking ” Open in the right column.

Once the application is open, click on ” New workbook», then enter the data of the table, taking care to distribute them well in the columns and rows of the sheet. This step is very important for the future.

Step 2: Select table data

After inserting the data into the Excel workbook, you need to select them in order to put them in the form of a table. Rest assured, the procedure to follow to achieve this is very simple.

And to succeed, you need to: click on the first cell, ie the one at the top left of the data group, then on the last one at the bottom right of this same group while holding down the key ” Shift » pressed.

For example, if your data is split into columns A through D on rows 1 through 11, you would click cell A1 and then hold ” Shift while clicking on cell D11 to select all the data to include in the table.

Step 3: Click on the “Insert” tab

After selecting all the data to integrate into the Excel table, click on the ” insertionwhich is located in Excel’s menu bar.

A toolbar should now appear just below the menu ribbon. If you’re using a Mac, be careful not to click the ” Insertwhich is located in the menu bar.

Step 4: Choose “Table”

In the sub-menu that just appeared, search for ” Picturethen click on it. But first, make sure that the array data you selected earlier is still there.

A small window should now open above the table data. Don’t edit or uncheck anything unless your table doesn’t have headers.
Then validate the insertion of the table by clicking on ” okay“.

Your table should now look like this:

How to change table appearance in Excel?

You don’t like the appearance of your Excel table? No problem, you can change it in seconds. To succeed:

click on ” Creationwhich is in the edit menu. This will allow you to access a new toolbar;

Search in this toolbar the section devoted to Table Styles“. It is usually found at the right end of the bar. Once you have identified it, click on the last little arrow pointing down to display all the styles. In this way, you can quickly choose the style of your table and therefore save time.

How to use calculation formulas in an Excel table?

In general, to use a calculation formula in an Excel table, you start by typing the sign “ = in the cell where you want to insert it. Then, without leaving a space, we add the figures according to the calculation to be carried out (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, powers). Here is a small example:

You can also, if necessary, add parentheses” ( ) “.

That said, also be aware that calculations can be performed in Excel from data coming directly from cells. To perform such a calculation, you must also start with the equals sign ” = “. Without putting a space, select the first cell concerned, then the appropriate sign (+, -, *, /) and finally the last cell concerned. Feel free to add parentheses if necessary.

Here is an example of a calculation made from cell data:

Even if these two forms of calculation, which involve numbers and cells respectively, are very often complementary, they do not have the same advantage. Indeed, the one that involves the cells allows a real saving of time thanks to the automation of the results.

To put it into practice, we replaced the numbers in the table above with cells. The cells concerned are the B8 and B9 to which care has been taken to assign the respective values of 2 and 4 a first time, then a second time the values 5 and 12.

As you can see, with the table formula that uses the values of cells B8 and B9 the results change automatically without having to touch the formulas. All you usually have to do is act on the values of the respective cells involved in the calculation.

How to use functions in an Excel table?

There are a variety of functions that can be used (sum function, average function, etc.) in an Excel table.

How to use the sum function in Excel?

To use the sum function in an Excel table, you must:

select the cell where you want to enter the sum and then left-click on the ” formulas» ;

choose in the toolbar the functionality” autosum» ;

now select the range of cells you would like to sum. Excel may offer you a default range, check that it is the correct one before pressing ” Enter“. As soon as you have validated the selection, the result will be displayed systematically.

How to use the average function in Excel?

Functions can be inserted into a table using various shortcuts from the ” formulas “. But this time, we will see together how to insert the function ” Average without using any of these shortcuts. To achieve this, you need:

click on the cell where you want to insert the average to be calculated, then left click on ” Insert function» which is in the toolbar of the « formulas » ;