How to Make Excel Tables Look Good (8 Effective Tips)

How to Create an Excel Table

Steps:

Select a cell from the data set.

A sample of Excel dataset

Go to the Insert tab and choose Table.

creating an excel table

Excel will automatically pick the data for you. Check the box next to My table contains headers, then click OK.

The create table window

Excel will format a table.

a sample Excel table

Or,

Choose your desired dataset and click the button Ctrl + T.

creating Excel table using keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T

How to Make an Excel Table Look Good/Professional

Method 1 – Using Built-In Table Styles to Make a Good-Looking Excel Table

Select any cell in the table.
Go to Table Design and choose Table Styles, then click on the drop-down arrow.
Choose one of the built-in Table Styles available.
You can get a preview by just hovering over each style.
We have selected Table Style Medium 28 as shown below.

choosing a suitable table design to make a good looking Excel Tables

After applying this style, we get the following table.

Method 2 – Changing the Workbook Theme

Go to Page Layout and select Themes, then click on the drop-down arrow below Themes and select another theme.
We chose the Slice theme.

choosing a suitable good looking tables theme from the Page Layout tab in Excel

The Table Style draws its colors from the Slice theme and the effect of the change on the actual Excel Table is shown below.

a well formatted Excel table with professional look

Go to Table Styles to see how this affects other table styles (see Method 1).

create Excel table with good look using different themes

Method 3 – Editing the Theme Color

With any theme currently selected, go to Page Layout and to Themes, then click on the drop-down next to Colors.

Editing Workbook Theme Color to get Excel Tables with professional look

Choose the Customize Colors option.

Customize colors to make Excel tables look better

In the Create New Theme Colors dialog sox, select the drop-down arrow next to Text/Background – Dark 2 and choose More Colors.

Select the Custom Tab and enter the following values: R 87, G 149, and B 35, in order to set this dark green color and click OK.

In the Create New Theme Colors dialog box, select the drop-down next to Text/Background – Light 2 and choose More Colors.

create new theme colors

Select the Custom tab and enter the following values: R 254, G 184, and B 10, in order to set this orange color and click OK.

colors window

In the Create New Theme Colors dialog box, select the drop-down next to Accent 1 and choose More Colors.

Select the Custom Tab and enter the following values: R 7, G 106, and B 111, in order to set this dark turquoise color, and click OK.

In the Create New Theme Colors dialog box, select the drop-down next to Accent 2 and choose More Colors.

creating new theme colors to get a better look of Excel tables

Select the Custom Tab and enter the following values: R 254, G 0, and B 103, in order to set this pink color, then click OK.

Give your new customized theme set a name and click Save.

Here’s the result.

Professional Excel tables with better look

The changes will also affect other Table Styles.

Method 4 – Clearing a Style from an Excel Table

Go to Table Design and expand Table Styles.
Select Clear.

Clearing Style from a Table

Any formatting associated with the specific table style chosen is now cleared as shown below.

a table with no style

Method 5 – Creating a Custom Excel Table Style

In Table Design click on the drop-down arrow next to Table Styles and select New Table Style.

Create Custom Style for Excel tables

You can now format individual elements of the Table using the New Table Style dialog box.

new table style window

Select Whole Table and then choose Format.
The Format Cells dialog box should appear. Choose the Font Tab, and under font style choose Bold Italic.

format cells window

Go to the Fill tab and, under the Background Color option, choose More Colors.

Select the Custom tab, set: R 133, G 229, and B 255 as shown below, and then click OK.

Click OK.
Select the Header Row element as shown below and click Format.

The Format Cells dialog box should appear as before. Choose the Font Tab, and under Font Style choose Bold and change the font color to White, Background 1.

Choose the Border tab, select the thick line style, and the color: Gray – 25%, Background 2, Darker 50%.

Choose Outline.

Select the Fill tab and, under Background Color, choose More Colors.

Select the Custom tab, set: R 11, G 135, and B 52 as shown below, and then click OK.

Click OK.
Give your new Table Style a name and check the Set as default table style for this document option to keep the changes for other tables you make.

Applying this Custom Table Style to the table results in the following look.

Read More: Navigating Excel Table

Method 6 – Adding the Total Row and Turn the Filter Button Off

With one cell in your table selected, go to Table Design, check Total Row, and uncheck Filter Button.

Add a Total Row and Turn the Filter Button Off to give Excel tables a better look

The table will have the following look.

Excel table with no filter button

Method 7 – Inserting Slicers

Format the table with Table Style Medium 4 (make sure the theme is the default Office theme).

Now the entire table has the format with this style as shown below.

With one cell in the table selected, go to Table Design and select Insert Slicer.

Insert Table Slicers in Excel

Choose one or more slicers to filter the data by. We’ll choose Footwork Evaluation as shown below and then click OK.

The Slicer with the default style appears as shown below.

With the slicer selected, go to Slicer Tools then to Options and choose Slicer Styles.
Select one of the default built-in styles.

This changes the Slicer Style to the following format.
With the Slicer selected, go to Slicer Tools then to Options and select Buttons, then change the number of columns to 3.
Go to Slicer Tools then to Options and to Size, then change the height of the slicer to 1 inch and the width to 3 inches as shown below.

Go to Slicer Tools and select New Slicer Style as shown below.

In the New Slicer Style dialog box, choose the Whole Slicer element and then click Format.

In the Fill tab, under Background Color, choose Fill Effects.

Format slicer element window

Using the Fill Effects dialog box, change Color 1 to White, Background 1, Darker 25%, and change Color 2 to White, Background 1 as shown below.

Add more colors.

Under Shading styles, make sure Horizontal is selected and choose the third variant as shown below.

Fill effects window

Click OK and then select the Border tab, choose the thin line style and White Background 1, Darker 35%, and then select Outline as shown below.