Borders and Shading in Word Tables

Borders can improve a table’s appearance, giving it a polished, professional look. Borders also make it easier to keep the information in different cells visually separate.

Add a Border

Select a cell, multiple cells, or the whole table.

Borders will only be added to the cell or cells you have selected.

Click the Design tab in the Table Tools ribbon group.

Before applying a border, you need to specify the border style. You can individually select a line style, weight, and color, or use an existing border style.

Click the Border Styles list arrow.

This menu shows a few borders included in the document theme, in a variety of colors and line styles.

Select a border style.

Now that you’ve selected a border style, choose which borders to apply that style to.

Click the Borders list arrow.

This menu shows which borders the style can be applied to. You can select All Borders or a subset.

Select the borders you want to add.

The selected border style is applied to the selected borders.

Select No Borders from the Borders menu to remove borders from the selected cells.

Add Cell Shading

Shading includes fill colors and patterns that you can apply to table cells.

Select the cell or cells you want to add shading to.
Click the Shading list arrow in the Table Tools Design tab.

The shading menu will show a spectrum of colors from the current document theme as well as a few standard colors. You could also select More Colors to select a custom color or select No Color to remove existing shading.

Select a color.

The color is added as a background to the selected cells.

To use a pattern instead of a solid color in your table, click the Borders group dialog box launcher, click the Shading tab, and select a pattern in the Style list.

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Borders and Shading in Word Tables

Add a Border

Add Cell Shading

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