The Tables and Borders Toolbar

You’ll primarily be using the Tables and Borders toolbar for formatting and modifying the appearance of your table. To open the toolbar, go to the “File” menu and select “Toolbars” >> “Tables and Borders.”

1. Draw table: lets you create a table by drawing it freehand.
2. Eraser: You can remove parts of your table by using the eraser to click and drag on lines, rows and columns.
3. Line Style: Click on the small triangle to show the drop down menu. From here, you can choose a line style for your borders, such as solid, dotted, dashed, and more.
4. Line Weight: Click on the small triangle to show the drop down menu. Using this, you can choose a line thickness for your table line borders. The bigger the line weight, the thicker the line.
5. Border Colour: By clicking on this button, you can access the color template that will allow you to apply a color to your line borders.
6. Borders: To apply a certain border style to the borders of specific cells, or to remove the borders from specific cells completely, use your mouse to select the desired cells. Then, use the Borders menu to apply or remove borders from those selected cells. You can identify the cells that have borders by the border type icons that are a light shade of gray in the Borders menu.
7. Shading and Colour: You can apply a background color to cells, rows, and columns by accessing the color palette that appears when you click on the small triangle next to the paint bucket.
8. Insert Table: Clicking on this icon brings up the “Insert Table” window which allows you to input specific information about the look and design of your table (see “Table Basics - Part 1″).
9. Merge Cells: Merging cells is the act of selecting more than one separate cell and merging them so that they become one. First, select the cells that you want to merge with your mouse (by clicking and holding within one cell and dragging the mouse across the cells you want to select), and then click on the “Merge Cells” icon. Word will automatically merge the two cells together.
10. Split Cells: Splitting a cell is the act of selecting a specific cell, and dividing it into one or more rows or columns. Select the cell that you want to split, and then click on the “Split Cells” icon. Once you do this, the “Split Cells” window will appear. From here, you can decide how many rows or columns you wish to create from the one cell.
    
11. Align: Choosing an alignment from the drop-down menu allows you to format the text or content within a cell. From here, you can make your text right, left, and centered aligned. There are also other alignments to choose from, such as different horizontal and vertical alignments.
12. Distribute Rows Evenly: Makes the heights between rows equally spaced. Select the desired rows that you wish to format, and then click on the “Distribute Rows Evenly” icon.
13. Distribute Columns Evenly: Makes the widths between columns equally spaced.
    
14. Table AutoFormat: Clicking on this icon brings up the Table AutoFormat window. There are a number of pre-made design table templates you can use to apply to your table. You can customize colors, fonts, borders, and other table features.
15. Change Text Direction: This allows you to modify the orientation of text within a cell. The default setting is horizontal, but by clicking on this icon, you can change the orientation of the text to display vertically.
16. Sort Ascending: Sort a selection of text in cells in ascending order.
17. Sort Descending: Sort a selection of text in cells in descending order.
18. Autosum: Auotmatically calculates the formulas within cells.