How to shade every other row or column in Word table?

It may be a common task for us to shade every other row or column in Excel worksheet, but, have you ever tried to shade rows or columns alternately in a Word table? This article, I will talk about how to solve this job in a Word document table?

Shade every other row or column in Word table by creating table style

Shade every other row or column in Word table by creating table style

To shade rows or columns alternately in a table of Word document, please do with following steps:

1. Click a cell in the table that you want to shade rows or columns alternately, and a Table Tools tab is activated, under the Design tab, check Header Row, Banded Rows, Banded Columns options, see screenshot:

doc alternate shading 1

2. And then, click More icon from the Table Styles group, see screenshot:

doc alternate shading 2

3. In the expanded section, click New Table Style, see screenshot:

doc alternate shading 3

4. And then, a Create New Style from Formatting dialog box is popped out, please do the following operations:

(1.) Specify a name for this new table style;

(2.) Select Header row from the Apply formatting to drop down list to set a formatting for the header;

(3.) Then, click Format button in the left bottom of the dialog box;

(4.) And then, select Borders and Shading option.

doc alternate shading 4

5. And then, in the Borders and Shading dialog box, set the border style and fill color from the Borders and Shading tab separately, see screenshot:

doc alternate shading 5

6. Then, click OK to go back to the Create New Style from Formatting dialog box, this time, please choose Odd banded rows from the Apply formatting to drop down list, and then go to the Borders and Shading dialog box to set the border style and fill color as following screenshot shown:

doc alternate shading 6

7. Click OK, go on choosing Even banded rows from the Apply formatting to drop down list, and repeat the above step6 to set the border style and fill color as you need. See screenshot:

doc alternate shading 7

8. At last, click OK > OK to close the dialogs, and now, you can find the new table style you are created in Table Styles group, click it to format its style to the active table. See screenshot:

doc alternate shading 8

Note: To shade the column colors alternately, you should choose Odd banded columns and Even banded columns in Apply formatting to drop down list of Create New Style from Formatting dialog.