How to make the table in excel

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Tables might be the best feature in Excel that you aren’t yet using. It’s quick to create a table in Excel. With just a couple of clicks (or a single keyboard shortcut), you can convert your flat data into a data table with a number of benefits.

The advantages of an Excel table include all of the following:

• Quick Styles. Add color, banded rows, and header styles with just one click to style your data.
• Table Names. Give a table a name to make it easier to reference in other formulas. 
• Cleaner Formulas. Excel Formulas are much easier to read and write when working in tables.
• Auto Expand. Add a new row or column to your data, and the Excel table automatically updates to include the new cells.
• Filters & Subtotals. Automatically add filter buttons and subtotals that adapt as you filter your data.

In this tutorial, I’ll teach you to use tables (also called data tables) in Microsoft Excel. You’ll discover how to use all of these features and master working with data tables. Let’s get started learning all about MS Excel tables.

What is a Table in Microsoft Excel?

A table is a powerful feature to group your data together in Excel. Think of a table as a specific set of rows and columns in a spreadsheet. You can have multiple tables on the same sheet.

You might think that your data in an Excel spreadsheet is already in a table, simply because it’s in rows and columns and all together. However, your data isn’t in a true «table» unless you’ve used the specific Excel data table feature.

In the screenshot above, I’ve converted a standard set of data to a table in Excel. The obvious change is that the data was styled, but there’s so much power inside this feature.

Tables make it easier to work with data in Microsoft Excel, and there’s no real reason not to use them. Let’s learn how to convert your data to tables and reap the benefits.

How To Make a Table in Excel Quickly (Watch & Learn)

The screencast below is a guided tour to convert your flat data into an Excel table. I’ll teach you the keyboard shortcut as well as the one-click option to convert your data to tables. Then, you’ll learn how to use all the features that make MS Excel tables so powerful.

If you want to learn more, keep reading the tutorial below for an illustrated guide to Excel tables.

To follow along with this tutorial, you can use the sample data I’ve included for free in this tutorial. It’s a simple spreadsheet with example data you can use to convert to a table in Excel.

How to Convert Data to a Table in Excel

Here’s how to quickly create a table in Excel: 

Start off by clicking inside a set of data in your spreadsheet. You can click anywhere in a set of data before converting it to a table.

Now, you have two choices for how to convert your flat, ordinary data to a table:

1. Use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + T to convert your data to a table.
2. Make sure you’re working on the Home tab on Excel’s ribbon, and click on Format as Table and choose a style (theme) to convert your data to a table.

In either case, you’ll receive this pop-up menu asking you to confirm the table settings:

Confirm two settings on this menu:

• Make sure all of your data is selected. You’ll see the green marching ants box around the cells that will be included in your table.
• If your data has headers (titles at the top of the column), leave the My table has headers box checked.

I highly recommend embracing the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + T) to create tables quickly. When you learn Excel keyboard shortcuts, you’re much more likely to use the feature and embrace it in your own work.

Now that you’ve converted your ordinary data to a table, it’s time to use the power of the feature. Let’s learn more:

How to Use Table Styles in Excel

Tables make it easy to style your data. Instead of spending time highlighting your data, applying background colors and tweaking individual cell styles, tables offer one click styles.

Once you’ve converted your data to a table, click inside of it. A new Excel ribbon option called Table Tools > Design appears on the ribbon.

Click on this ribbon option and find the Table Styles dropdown. Click on one of these style thumbnails to apply the selected color scheme to your data. 

Instead of spending time manually styling data, you can use a table to clean up the look of your data. If you only use tables to apply quick styles, it’s still a great feature. But, there’s more you can do with Excel tables:

How to Apply Table Names

One of my favorite table features is the ability to add a name to a table. This makes it easy to reference the table’s data in formulas.

Click inside the table to select it. Then, click on the Design tab on Excel’s ribbon. On the left side of this menu, find the Table Name box and type in a new name for your table. Make sure that it’s a single word (no spaces are allowed in table names.)

Now, you can use the name of the table when you write your formulas. In the example screenshot below, you can see that I’ve pointed a new PivotTable to the table we created in the previous step. Instead of typing out the cell references, I’ve simply typed the name of the table.

Best of all, if the table changes with new rows or columns, these references are smart enough to update as well. 

Table names are a must when you create large, robust Excel workbooks. It’s a housekeeping step that ensures you know where your cell references point to.

How to Make Cleaner Excel Formulas

When you write a formula in a table, the formula is more readable and cleaner to review than standard Excel formulas. 

In the example below, I’m writing a formula to divide the Amount Billed by the Hours Spent to calculate an Hourly Rate. Notice that the formula that Excel generates isn’t «E2/D2», but instead includes the column names.

Once you press enter, the Excel table will pull the formula down to all of the rows in the table. I prefer the formulas that tables generate when creating calculations. Not only are they cleaner, but you don’t have to pull the formula down manually.

Time-Saving Excel Table Feature: Auto Expand

Tables might evolve over time to include new columns or rows. When you add new data to your tables, they automatically update to include the new columns or rows.

In the example below, you can see an example of what I mean. Once I add a new column in column G and press enter, the table automatically expands and all of the styles are pulled over as well. This means that the table has expanded to include these new columns.

The best part of this feature is that when you’re referencing tables in other formulas, it will automatically include the new rows and columns as well. For example, a PivotTable linked to an Excel data table will update with the new columns and rows when refreshed.

How to Use Excel Table Filters

When you convert data to a table in Excel, you may notice that filter buttons appear at the top of each column. These give you an easy way to restrict the data that appears in the spreadsheet. Click on the dropdown arrow to open the filtering box.

You can check the boxes for the data you want to remove, or uncheck a box to remove it from the table view.

Again, this is a feature that makes using Excel tables worthwhile. You can add filtering without using tables, sure—but with so many features, it makes sense to convert to tables instead.

How to Quickly Apply Subtotals

Subtotals are another great feature that make tables worth using. Turn on totals from the ribbon by clicking on Total Row. 

Now, the bottom of each column has a dropdown option to add a total or another math formula. In the last row, click the dropdown arrow to choose an average, total, count, or another math formula.

With this feature, a table becomes a reporting and analysis tool. The subtotals and other figures at the bottom of the table will help you understand your data better.

These subtotals will also adapt if you use filters. For example, if you filter for a single client, the totals will update to only show for that single client.

Recap and Keep Learning More About Excel

It doesn’t matter how much time you spend learning Excel, there’s always more to learn and better ways to use it for controlling your data. Check out these Excel tutorials to keep learning useful spreadsheet skills:

If you haven’t been using tables, are you going to start using them after this tutorial? Let me know in the comments section below.

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I cover a variety of topics for Tuts+, including photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom, PowerPoint, Keynote, and more. What I enjoy most is teaching people to use software to solve everyday problems, excel in their career, and complete work efficiently. Feel free to reach out to me on my website.

This tutorial demonstrates how to create a table in Excel.

Create an Excel Table

You can either create an Excel table using existing data, or you can create a blank table and fill it with data afterwards.

1. To create a table using existing data, ensure that your data is laid out in a way that is compatible with creating a table, e.g., each column should have a header row that describes the contents of that column and no blank rows or columns should exist in the middle or the data.

1. Then, in the Ribbon, go to Insert > Table.

1. Excel selects the entire range of data. Leave My table has headers ticked, and then click OK.

1. This automatically creates a table as far down as the next blank row and as far across as the next blank column.

Alternate Shading in a Table

When a table is automatically created, the table is formatted according to the default table style that exists in Excel. This means that the top row is formatted with a blue background and white writing, while the rows below are formatted alternatively with a blue or white background.

1. To change the table’s appearance, click somewhere within the table and in the Ribbon, go to Table Design > Table Styles. Choose a style.

1. The format changes according to the style you choose. There are many built-in styles available. To access a few more styles, click the “more” button as shown below.

1. The list of styles is expanded to show a variety of different table styles. Choose one.

Convert Table Back to a Range

If you have formatted your data as a table, and then wish to remove the filter options and convert your table back to a range, you can use the Table Design tab to do this.

1. Click in your table, and then in the Ribbon, go to Table Design > Tools > Convert to Range.

1. Click OK to convert your table to a range.

While the formatting is preserved, the filters are removed from the column headers indicating that the data is now a normal range and no longer a table.

Link Tables: Relationships

If you have data in two different ranges in Excel, but the data is linked together by a common column name, you can create a relationship between these two sets of data as long as both sets of data are tables in Excel.
Consider the following two tables in Excel.

One table contains the salesperson‘s name and their Sales Target, while the other table contains their order amounts. In one table, the salesperson appears only once while in the other table the salesperson can appear multiple times.

Note: the data does not have to be on one sheet and may be much larger than the example above.

For example, to create a pivot table that contains information from both tables, you can link these tables together by creating a relationship between them.
Note: Try using some shortcuts when you’re working with pivot tables.

1. In the Ribbon, go to Data > Data Tools > Relationships.

1. In the Relationships window, click New.

1. In the Table drop down, choose the first table and in the drop down below, choose the second table.

1. In the Column table, first choose the Foreign column (in this case, Salesperson as it can appear multiple times); and then in the Related Column, choose the Salesperson field from the second table. This is the Primary column where the salesperson only appears once in that table.

1. Click OK to create the relationship.

1. Click Close to return to Excel.

Benefits of Using a Table

Add Totals Automatically

Adding a total row to a table is incredibly easy.

Click in your table, and then, in the Ribbon, go to Table Design > Table Style Options > Total Row

The default function use for the Total Row is the sum function. You can, however, amend this function if you want to use a different function.

Notice that the Header Row, Banded Rows, and Filter Button are also ticked in this group of options.

• If you switch off the Header Row, then the Filter Button option is no longer available.
• If you switch off the filter option, you can’t use the filter option in your table.
• you switch off the Banded Rows option, the rows are no longer alternatively shaded.

Automatically Add Rows With Tab Key

One of the benefits of using at table is that a table will automatically expand if you enter more data into the table. Notice that in the bottom row of the table, a small, backward-L-shaped handle exists.

If you then click in this cell and press the TAB key, a new row in the table is created, and your cursor is moved to the first cell in the new row. The table has therefore automatically expanded to include this row.

This is useful since some of the benefits of using a table are the sorting and filtering options that are built into the table. If you then wanted to filter on the Salesperson, for example, the new record is automatically included in that filter. Similarly, if you sort the data, the new row(s) are included in the sort.

Consistent Formulas

If you add two more columns to the table, these would automatically be included in the table, as the new rows were above.

Then, add a formula to work out the total by multiplying the Order Amount by the Quantity. The formula is created using the field names (column headers).

When you press ENTER, the formula is copied down to all the other rows in the table.

Multiple Filters on One Sheet

In the example below, a table has been created for each year of orders, and then, each table has been filtered by region to show the orders for a single region in each individual year.

Combine Tables Into One Pivot Table

If you have created a relationship between two tables, you can create a pivot table using fields from both tables.

1. In the Ribbon, go to Insert > Pivot Table > From Data Model.

1. Select New Worksheet, and then click OK.

1. You now have the field available from both your tables to use in your pivot table where the linked fields (Salesperson) will show up identical data.

Able to Use Slicers

When you data is formatted as a table, you are able to use slicers to filter your data.

1. Click in your table and then, in the Ribbon, select Table Design > Tools > Insert Slicer.

1. Select the field or fields of the slicer you wish to insert, and then click OK.

1. You can then filter your data by selecting an individual value in the slicer, or you can hold down the CTRL key (for nonconsecutive values) or the SHIFT key (for consecutive values) to filter on multiple values.

PowerPivot and Power Query

Any data used in a Power Pivot or Power Query must be in a table format. So for users of Power Query, formatting as an Excel table is a necessity, not just a benefit.

More on Tables

Microsoft Excel is convenient for creating tables and doing calculations. Its working area is a set of cells to be filled with data. Consequently, the data can be formatted, used for building graphs, charts, summary reports.

For a beginner, working with tables in Excel may seem complicated at the first glance. It is differs considerably from the principles of table construction in Word. However, let us start from the very basics: creating and formatting tables. By the time you reach the end of this article, you will understand there is no better tool for creating tables than Excel.



Creating a table in Excel: a dummy’s guide

Working with Excel tables for dummies does not tolerate haste. There are different ways to create a table for a specific purpose, and each of them has its advantages. Therefore, let us start with assessing the situation visually.

Look carefully at the work sheet of the table processor:

It is a set of cells in columns and rows. Essentially, it’s a table. The columns are marked with letters. The rows are designated with numbers. There are no borders.

First of all, let’s learn to work with cells, rows and columns.

How to select a column and a row

To select the entire column, left-click on the letter that marks it.

To select a row, click on the number it’s designated with.

To select several columns or rows, left-click on the name, hold down the button and drag the pointer.

To select a column with the help of hot keys, place the cursor in any cell of the column and press Ctrl + Space. The key combination Shift + Space is used to select a row.

How to resize cells

If your information does not fit in the table, you need to resize the cells.

1. You can move them manually by grabbing the cell boundary with the left mouse button.



2. If the cell contains a long word, you can double-click on the boundary of the column/row. The program will expand its boundary automatically.



3. If you need to increase the height of a row preserving the column width, use the button «Wrap Text» in the tool bar.

To change the column width and the row height in a certain range, resize 1 column/row (by dragging its boundaries manually) – and all the selected columns and rows will be resized automatically.

Important note. To go back to the previous size, you can press the «Undo Typing» button or the hot-key combination CTRL+Z. However, it works only if used immediately. Later on, it will not help.

To bring the rows to their initial boundaries, open the tool menu: «HOME»-«Format» and choose «AutoFit Row Height».

This method does not work for columns. Click «Format» — « AutoFit Row Width» Memorize this number. Select any cell in the column that needs to go back to the initial size. Click «Format» — «Column Width» again and enter the value suggested by the program (as a rule, it’s 8.43 – the number of characters in the Calibri font, size 11 pt). OK.

How to insert a column or row

Select the column/row to the right of/below the place where the insertion needs to be made. That is, the new column will appear to the left of the selected cell. The new row will be pasted above it.

Right-click on the cell and select «Insert» in the drop-down menu (or hit the hot-key combination CTRL+SHIFT+»=»).

Select «Entire column» and press OK.

Hint. To insert a new column quickly, select a column in the desired position and hit CTRL+SHIFT+PLUS.

All these skills will come handy when building a table in Excel. You will need to resize the cells and insert rows/columns in the process.

Creating a table with formulas step by step

1. Fill in the header manually by entering the column headings. Fill in the rows by entering your data. Apply the acquired knowledge in practice: expand the column boundaries, adjust the row height.



2. To fill in the «Sum» column, place the cursor in its first cell. Enter «=». In such a way, we inform Excel: a formula will be here. Select the cell B2 (with the first price). Enter the multiplication symbol (*). Select the cell C2 (with the quantity). Press ENTER.



3. When you hover the pointer over the cell containing the formula, a small cross will appear in its bottom right corner. It points out the autocomplete marker. Grab it with the left mouse button and drag it to the end of the column. The formula will be copied into every cell.



4. Designate the boundaries of your table. Select the range containing your data. Click the button «HOME»-«Border» (on the main page in the «Font» menu). And click «All Borders».

Now the column and row borders will be visible when you print the table.

The «Font» menu allows you to format the data in your Excel table the way you would do it in Word.

For example, change the font size and highlight the header in bold. You may also apply center alignment, word wrap, etc.



Creating a table in Excel: a step-by-step instruction

You already know the simplest way to create tables. However, Excel can offer a more convenient variant (in terms of the subsequent formatting and work with the data).

Let us construct a smart (dynamic) table:

1. Go to the «INSERT» tab – the «Table» tool (or press the hot-key combination CTRL+T).



2. This will open a dialog window, in which you need to enter the data range. Check the box for a table with headings. Click OK. It’s no big deal if you don’t enter the proper range on the first try. The smart table is flexible, dynamic.

Important note. You can also take an alternative route: start with selecting the range of cells, then press the «Table» button.

Now enter your data into the ready framework. If you need an additional column, place the cursor in the heading cell. Make the entry and press ENTER. The range will expand automatically.

If you need additional rows, grab the autocomplete marker in the bottom right corner and drag it downward.

How to work with a table in Excel

With the release of new versions of the program, working with tables in Excel has become more interesting and dynamic. After a smart table has been formed on the spreadsheet, the tool «TABLE TOOLS» — «DESIGN» becomes available.

Here you can name the table or resize it.

Various styles are available to you, as well as the opportunity to transform the table into a regular range or a consolidated sheet.

MS Excel dynamic electronic tables offer immense opportunities. Let us begin with the basic skills of data entry and autocompletion:

1. Select a cell by clicking on it with the left mouse button. Enter the text/numeric value. Press ENTER. If you need to change the value, place the cursor in the cell again and enter the new data.
2. When you enter a value repetitively, Excel will recognize it. You will only need to enter several symbols and press enter.



3. In a smart table, to apply a formula to the entire column, enter it in the first cell. The program will copy the formula in other cells automatically.



4. To calculate the totals, select the column containing the values plus an empty cell for the future total and click the «Sum» button (the «Editing» tool group on the «HOME» tab, or press the hot-key combination ALT+»=»).

When you click on the little arrow to the right of every subheading in the header, you obtain access to the additional tools for working with the data in the table.

Sometimes the user has to work with huge tables, in which you need to scroll several thousand rows to see the totals. Deleting the rows is not an option (you will still need the data later). However, you can hide them. To this end, use number filters (depicted in the image above). Uncheck the values that need to be hidden.