A table straight from PowerPoint’s gallery usually has white lines on coloured rows, or thin grey lines that vanish on a projector. Changing them should be one click — and it is, once you know that PowerPoint treats borders like a drawing pen. You set the pen, then tell PowerPoint which borders to draw with it. Pick a colour without that second step and nothing visible happens, which is why this is one of the most searched table questions.
Change the border colour in PowerPoint for Windows
Border colour, step by stepWindows
Select what should change
To change every border, click the table’s outer edge so the whole table is selected (the frame around it turns solid). For some cells only, drag across them.
Whole table selected by its edge Set the pen
In Table Design, in the Draw Borders group, choose Pen Color, then Pen Weight (1 pt or 1.5 pt reads well on screens) and, if you like, Pen Style for dashed or dotted lines.
Table Design → Draw Borders: Pen Color Leave the pencil
Choosing a pen switches on Draw Table — the cursor becomes a pencil. You can click single borders with it, but for a whole table press Esc first.
Apply the pen to the borders
With the table or cells still selected, open the arrow beside Borders in the Table Styles group and choose All Borders, Outside Borders, Inside Borders or a single side. Only now do the lines change.
Table Design → Borders → All Borders
Change the border colour in PowerPoint for Mac
The Mac version follows the same pen-then-borders logic, with the controls on the same tab.
Border colour, step by stepMac
Select the table or cells
Click the table’s edge for all of it, or drag across the cells you want.
Choose the line
On the Table Design tab choose the pen’s colour, weight and style (Pen Color, Pen Weight, Pen Style in current versions).
PowerPoint for Mac: Table Design tab with the pen controls Apply it
Open Borders on the same tab and choose which borders get the line. Press Esc if the pencil cursor appears.
Colour one border, or draw over single lines
Sometimes only one line should stand out — the line under the header, or a frame around the total row. Select the cells that share that border and choose the matching side in Borders, for example Bottom Border for the header row. Alternatively keep the pencil from step 3 and click the individual lines: each click paints that segment with the current pen. The eraser, Eraser in the same group, removes single lines.
| Action | Windows | Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Next cell | Tab | Tab |
| Previous cell | Shift+Tab | Shift+Tab |
| Add a row at the end | Tab in the last cell | Tab in the last cell |
| Leave the pencil or eraser | Esc | Esc |
| Undo the last border | Ctrl+Z | Cmd+Z |
Table styles and theme colours: change all tables at once
Borders you set by hand belong to that one table. If every table in the deck should change, work with the theme instead. The styles in Table Design → Table Styles are built from the theme colours, so changing the colours under Design → Variants → More → Colors → Customize Colors recolours every table that uses a style — borders, header rows and banded rows together. To make a style the default for new tables, right-click it in the gallery and choose Set as Default.
Note the order of operations: applying a table style after you set borders by hand replaces your borders with the style’s. Pick the style first, then adjust the borders.
Borders that make data easier to read
Borders are there to guide the eye, not to fence in every number. For data tables, horizontal lines between rows (or light banded rows) help the eye follow a line across; vertical lines are rarely needed when columns are aligned — numbers right-aligned, text left-aligned. A slightly heavier line under the header row and above a total row marks the structure. Use one line colour for the whole table, a step darker than the background, and keep the accent colour for the one cell or row you want people to look at.
A data table with a marked header and total rowWindows and Mac
Switch on the rows that carry structure
Select the table and, in Table Design → Table Style Options, tick Header Row and Total Row; untick Banded Rows if you will draw lines between rows instead.
Table Design → Table Style Options Clear the inside lines
Select the whole table, set the pen to your line colour at 0.75 pt and choose Borders → No Border, then Borders → Inside Horizontal Border.
Weight the two key lines
Select the header row, set Pen Weight to 1.5 pt and choose Borders → Bottom Border. Select the total row and choose Borders → Top Border with the same pen.
A heavier line under the header and above the total Shade, if anything, the header
With the header row selected, choose Table Design → Shading and pick a light tint of your accent, or No Fill for a purely typographic table.
In Google Slides
Table border colour in Google SlidesGoogle Slides
Select the cells
Click into the first cell and drag across the cells you want — from the top-left to the bottom-right cell for the whole table. Selected cells turn light blue.
Choose which borders
Click the border selection button in the toolbar (the small grid icon) and pick all borders, inner, outer or a single side.
Google Slides: the border selection menu Set colour, weight and dash
Use Border color (the pencil icon), Border weight and Border dash in the toolbar. In Google Slides the order is reversed compared with PowerPoint: first choose the borders, then the colour.
In Word
Word’s tables use the same model as PowerPoint’s: Table Design → Pen Color, then Borders. Word adds the Border Painter, which copies a border style by clicking lines, and a dialog with a preview that is often quicker than the pen.
Border colour with the Borders and Shading dialogWord, Windows and Mac
Open the dialog
Click into the table, then choose Table Design → Borders → Borders and Shading… at the foot of the menu.
Word: Table Design → Borders → Borders and Shading… Choose the line
On the Borders tab pick a Setting (All, Box or Grid), then Style, Color and Width. Apply to decides whether the whole table or only the selected cells change.
Click the preview
Click the edges in the Preview to switch single lines on and off, then OK.
A table pasted from Word into PowerPoint keeps its borders, but takes the colours of PowerPoint’s theme only if you paste with Use Destination Styles from the paste options.
Why the border will not change
- You only picked a colour. The pen colour applies to borders you draw or choose afterwards. Choose Borders → All Borders after setting the pen.
- Two borders share a line. The bottom of row 1 is the top of row 2. If the line keeps its old colour, set the same border on the neighbouring cells too.
- A style was applied later. A table style overwrites borders set by hand. Set the borders again after changing the style.
- The line is there but invisible. White borders on a white slide, or 0.25 pt lines on a projector. Use at least 0.75 pt and a colour that contrasts with the background.
- You see dashed lines that will not go. Those are gridlines for editing, shown under Layout → View Gridlines. They do not appear in the slide show or in print.
- The table is a picture. A table pasted as an image or from a PDF cannot be restyled. Rebuild it with Insert → Table or paste the data again as text.
Designs for this kind of deck
Every design brings its own colours, fonts and layouts to the whole deck.
Tables in ExpertSlides: borders that follow the deck
In ExpertSlides you rarely touch a border at all. A table is drawn from the deck’s colours by role: its lines take the design’s line colour, its header row a tint of the secondary colour, its text the text colour. Change the deck’s three colours in the Design tab of the side panel — or pick one of its palettes — and every table on every slide follows, together with charts, shapes and texts. There is deliberately no separate border colour per table: that keeps all the tables of a deck consistent.
A selected table has its own toolbar: Edit table opens the data, Header row switches the first row on and off, the text size and the table’s text colour (with a transparency slider) are one click away, and Change chart type turns the table into any of the chart kinds and back. Data can come from a file: Upload Data in the Insert tab reads a spreadsheet or CSV and puts it on a new slide as a table or chart. Where one table needs something special, select it and say what you want in the prompt; the AI edits that slide.
For more on tidy slides, read arrows, check marks and shapes in PowerPoint; for the formats managers ask for — one-pagers, quad charts, action plans — see the business planning slides. Every look of Design Templates styles its tables in its own way, and the PowerPoint templates page shows what comes out as a file.
Questions, answered
Why doesn’t my table border colour change in PowerPoint?
Choosing a pen colour does not recolour existing borders. After setting Pen Color, open Borders on the Table Design tab and choose All Borders, Outside Borders or Inside Borders for the selected cells.
How do I remove all borders from a PowerPoint table?
Select the whole table by its edge, open Table Design, Borders and choose No Border. Dashed lines that remain are editing gridlines; switch them off under Layout, View Gridlines.
How do I change the border colour of a table on a Mac?
Select the table, choose the pen colour, weight and style on the Table Design tab, then open Borders on the same tab and choose which borders get the line.
How do I change table borders in Google Slides?
Select the cells, choose which borders with the border selection button in the toolbar, then set Border color, Border weight and Border dash.
Can I change the borders of all tables in a deck at once?
Yes, if the tables use a table style: change the theme colours under Design, Variants, Colors. Borders set by hand on single tables stay as they are.
How are table borders coloured in ExpertSlides?
By the deck’s colours: lines, header row and text follow the design and the three deck colours, so every table changes together. The PowerPoint export turns them into real, editable PowerPoint tables.
