In this article we will show you how to make a table in google sheets in just a few simple steps from your spreadsheet data.
For the purpose of this demonstration an example data set has been created, access and follow along by clicking this link.
In this example we will show you how to create a table in just a few simple steps. We will use the example data set containing numbers, months, active status and financial values below to demonstrate this.
Click on the first cell of the header row and then drag the cursor over the rest of the required cells to highlight them.
In this example we will highlight cells A3 to D3.
Make the text in the header row bold by selecting it and clicking the B icon in the toolbar.
Other options that can be applied to text include changing the color, italic or strike through.
Text wrapping keeps the values of a cell contained in a tidy and uniform way, while displaying all of the information within.
With the header cells still highlighted, wrap the contents of the cell values to remove overflow by first clicking the Text wrapping icon then from the dropdown the Wrap option.
The cells have been resized to accommodate the values within, but only the text in cell D3 is long enough to wrap.
Highlight the required text to center. click the Horizontal align icon in the toolbar and then click the Center icon.
The values in the highlighted cells have now been centered.
Select and highlight the whole data set. In the toolbar click Format and in the dropdown select Alternating colors
The alternating colors have been applied and the header has automatically been assigned a bold color to stand out from the rest of the data set.
The sidebar can be used to select custom colors that can be applied to the entire data set, including headers and footers.
You can now apply additional formatting to your dataset. For our example we will format the data in column D as a currency.
In our example we have highlighted the cells D4 to D11, omitting The header cell of D3. With the data highlighted, in the toolbar click the dollar symbol $.
The currency format has now been applied to the values of column D.
The currency section of the toolbar offers many options to customize your data. Decimal points can be moved and further options can be found in the 123 icon including the option to change the currency type.
Highlight the range of cells you want to center and click the Horizontal align icon from the toolbar followed by clicking the Center icon from the drop down.
In our example below we have highlighted the cell range A4:C11.
The data has now been aligned to the center of each cell.
Highlight the entire dataset and Click the Borders Icon in the toolbar. From the drop down menu select Outer Borders.
The table now has a border surrounding it.
To distinguish the header from the rest of the data set, highlight the header row and from the toolbar click Borders. In the dropdown options click Bottom border
The data set is now contained in a complete table.
We hope this article has helped you and given you a better understanding of how to make a table in Google Sheets. You might also like our articles on how to add error bars in Google Sheets and how to share Google Sheets.
To optimize your workflow, we recommend reading our guide on how to use data validation for email address in Google Sheets.
