Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 15, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
If you need to work with documents from other Word users, you may have a need to change the formatting that is applied to tables within those documents. For instance, you may need all tables to have 10% shading applied. Applying the shading over and over again can be tedious, however.
There are a couple of things you can do to speed up your formatting task. If you don't have many tables to process, then you will appreciate these steps:
If you have many, many tables you want to format, you might want to create a macro to do the shading for you. The following simple macro steps through each table in a document and applies the 10% shading.
Sub TableShading() For Each aTable In ActiveDocument.Tables aTable.Shading.Texture = wdTexture10Percent Next aTable End Sub
There are other approaches you can take, as well. (Word is nothing, if not flexible.) For instance, you could create a table style that could be applied to your tables, or you could create an AutoFormat for your tables.
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6270) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Applying Consistent Shading to a Table.
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