How to Add Borders and Shading to Tables in Word 2010. Skip navigation. Absolute, and Mixed Cell References in Microsoft Excel. How to Add Table Borders and Shading in Microsoft Word 2016. The shading described above is applied using ready made table styles. However, you can apply your own table shading without using table styles. Select a cell or range of cells and then click Table Tools > Design > Table Styles > Shading. Select a colour from the panel that opens and that colour will be applied as shading.
Applying Borders and Shading To enhance the appearance of the text in a paragraph, you can quickly add a border and shading to selected text. When you add a border, you can specify what sides you want to include or exclude.
For example, you can add a border on just the top and the bottom and leave the sides open. Shading colors the background behind the selected text or paragraph. If you want to customize borders and shading by changing line style, color, and width preferences, you can make changes in the Borders and Shading dialog box. Apply a Border.
Select the paragraph text you want to format. Click the Home tab. Click the Borders and Shading button arrow, and then click to select the border commands to add or remove a border.
I know I can use conditional formatting to shade every other row (or every nth row) of an Excel data table. But how do you do that in a Word table?
One way is to use the Table AutoFormat capabilities of Word. Start by creating your table as you normally would.
Select the table design from the menu as shown in the screenshot below. If you prefer the alternating colors in the columns instead, just keep clicking on the All table styles. What makes the Table AutoFormat particularly handy is that it creates a “smart” table that automatically adjusts row shading or color even when you add new rows.