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How to use pre-built tables in Google Sheets to simplify your spreadsheet life
Spreadsheets are a great way to chart, sort, and present data. For some, creating a spreadsheet is second nature — for others, however, it can be a real chore. Sure, you might understand how to add data to the document, but what about creating a unique color palette for your spreadsheet or making a spreadsheet for a specific task, event, or roadmap?
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Fortunately, Google Sheets offers pre-built tables, a feature meant to help simplify designing your ideal spreadsheet. These pre-built tables include features like smart chips, placeholders, and custom color palettes. Sheets has templates for many use cases, including project tasks, content tracking, product prioritization, recruitment applicants, travel and event planning, customer relations, project roadmap, inventory management, recruitment, team planning, and marketing.
Pre-built tables are easy to use — here’s how to get started.
How to add a pre-built table table in Google Sheets
What you’ll need: The only things you’ll need for this are a valid Google account and a web browser. One thing to keep in mind: the pre-built tables feature cannot be used on the mobile version of Google Sheets, so the only way to access it is via a desktop web browser.
To start, log into either Google Drive or Google Docs and create a new spreadsheet. The pre-built tables feature only appears in new spreadsheets, so if you open a previously existing document, you won’t see the pre-built tables sidebar.
From the Tables sidebar, you can search through the listing of table types to find the one that best fits your needs. Make sure to expand the categories, so you can see the different options available. For example, the Marketing category includes “Content tracker,” “Campaign tracker,” and “Campaign results.” The “Travel planner” category includes “Trip itinerary,” “Trip budget,” and “Trip transportation.”
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There is no search feature here, so you’ll have to scan through the options manually. You can hover over one of the entries to see a sample of how it looks displayed on the spreadsheet.
There are several pre-built tables to choose from.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Once you’ve found the type of table you want to use, hover your cursor over the entry again and click Insert. If the table you’ve added doesn’t work, you can go back to the sidebar and select a different pre-built table to replace it.
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If you’ve already closed the sidebar, you can re-open it by clicking the Insert menu and selecting Tables.
You’ll see both the Insert button on a cursor hover and a demonstration of how the table will look.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Not every pre-built table will perfectly fit your needs. Because of that, you can customize things like column titles, views, and more. You can also easily add more rows at the bottom, as well as priorities and statuses, change ownership, and more. Once your new table is customized, you can start entering data as needed.
The pre-built tables are very well designed.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
That’s all there is to using the Google Sheets pre-built tables feature. This handy option allows you to create helpful, well-designed spreadsheets in minutes.
