Tables --- show/hide gridlines ?

[echos]

Which version of PPT are you using, Christopher?

Echo

Christopher James wrote:

> Is there a show/hide gridlines control for tables ?
> (like the one in Word) .
> I find the show/hide gridlines feature a real help , since I mainly use
> 'invisible' tables as a layout aid .
>
> Christopher

[echos]

Hm. I was looking for a way to turn the borders off easily in PPT2k just the
other day. Let me look at it again when I go in to the office tomorrow--I only
have 97 loaded here at home, and the tables are too different for me to give
you any good ideas.

Echo
MS PPT MVP

Christopher James wrote:

> office2000
>
> --
>
> Christopher
>
> echos <ec...@indy.net> wrote in message news:3A0CCB2A...@indy.net...

[Christopher James]

[Brian Reilly, MS MVP]

Chris, While Echo is sleeping here's how (g).
Select the Table and click Format, Table, and choose the Borders tab.
Click the lines in the right hand view so they disappear. Gone from
table too.
Kinda like, but not exactly like Word.
Hope you had a good sleep Echo. (g)
Brian Reilly, PowerPoint MVP

[Christopher James]

Thanks Brian ,
But I'm talking about gridlines , not borders .
A rather useful feature of Word tables is that borders are a graphical
layer on top of the underlying (abstract) gridlines .
I gather that the gridline layer is missing in PowerPoint tables so far .

So for the meanwhile , I'll have to resort to my own wee ' borders invisible
toggle ' macro .

What's so good about gridlines is that they NEVER print .
Hence one can do a layout and keep the gridlines (table border positions) in
view , and they will never print .
Also very useful when one has very many tables over a few pages , some with
black borders for printing , others with invisible borders .
Happens quite often .
I've done very few documents which don't use mixed tables like this .
These features can all be faked up with borders on/off macros , its just a
lot more user effort .

One criticism of Word is that it is 'sprawling' .
I note that tables are improving with each release of PowerPoint .
Good .

Christopher

Brian Reilly, MS MVP <br...@reillyand.com> wrote in message
news:3a0ccc99...@msnews.microsoft.com...

[Kathy Huntzinger]

Christopher
The tables in PPT2000 are not real Word tables. You can bring in a table
from Word and it will have the gridlines when you are editing it, but I
don't see how to keep them once you click back to powerpoint.

Another suggestion is to use excel "tables". They keep the gridlines
showing until you turn them off in Tools, Options

Kathy

Christopher James wrote:
>
> Thanks Brian ,
> But I'm talking about gridlines , not borders .
> A rather useful feature of Word tables is that borders are a graphical
> layer on top of the underlying (abstract) gridlines .
> I gather that the gridline layer is missing in PowerPoint tables so far .
>
> So for the meanwhile , I'll have to resort to my own wee ' borders invisible
> toggle ' macro .
>
> What's so good about gridlines is that they NEVER print .
> Hence one can do a layout and keep the gridlines (table border positions) in
> view , and they will never print .
> Also very useful when one has very many tables over a few pages , some with
> black borders for printing , others with invisible borders .
> Happens quite often .
> I've done very few documents which don't use mixed tables like this .
> These features can all be faked up with borders on/off macros , its just a
> lot more user effort .
>
> One criticism of Word is that it is 'sprawling' .
> I note that tables are improving with each release of PowerPoint .
> Good .
>
> Christopher
>
> Brian Reilly, MS MVP <br...@reillyand.com> wrote in message
> news:3a0ccc99...@msnews.microsoft.com...

[Christopher James]

Thanks Kathy ,

Yes , we can hand over a chunk of the screen to Word or Excel .
I regret that this has never turned out to be of any real use to me .
Some folks may well like it .
When I use tables , I pretty well always have drawn objects beneath them ( I
produce teaching aids ) .
Problem with the Word tables in PPT , in my application , is they mask out
their screen space .

That said , I think I'll manage to live with PPT's native tables .
I'm glad to hear that they are in the process of being improved through each
new version of PPT .

Plus .... let's not leave the impression that Word tables are such wonders
!!
They certainly aren't .
The interface , various dialogs etc . , for manipulating tables in Word is
so utterly crap that I have had to rewrite all the functions I use into a
suite of VBA macros which I use to change the properties and positions of
tables .
Tables in Word , as found , are indeed , far too clever by half .
Incredibly , the Word2000 dialogs are actually MORE confusing than those in
Word97 .

And I'm supposed to be fond of Word ( says I to me ) !

Christopher

Kathy Huntzinger <pkh...@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:3A0D6045...@mvps.org...