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Table Slides
Table slides are useful principally in presenting small tables of data that illustrate select samplings of data—rarely will you actually want to put all of the data collected into a PowerPoint table slide, if only because this slide would be so densely packed with information that 1) the audience would be unable to take it all in; and 2) the audience may not even be able to read the slide from any distance.
Your first step with a table slide is to enter the title information: here, the slide is named "Showing Tabular Data."
When you double-click on the center of the empty table field below the title, a dialog box appears prompting you for information on how many columns and rows you'd like your table to have. (For the purpose of visibility, you'll probably never want more than seven rows or columns.)
Once you've specified the number of rows and columns you’d like in the table, clicking the OK button creates the empty table on the slide, with a Tables and Borders dialog floating above it. At this point, you can enter the information you'd like into the table.
If you want to merge cells in the table, the Eraser tool can be used to remove lines between cells; if you want to subdivide cells, the Draw Table tool (represented by the pencil icon) can be used to add new lines.
The remaining tools on the Tables and Borders toolbar allow you to further customize the table by setting attributes for border style, line width, background color, and alignment.
Tip for Table Slides : It's best not to spend time reformatting the table borders, lines, or colors until after you have chosen a design template. Leave the decorating until the content of the presentation is finished.