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Change the color of the borders of a table without changing their width or style

Anonymous
2016-10-06T15:49:15+00:00

Hi,

I have some tables in a document.  I am satisfied with the thickness of the table borders, which is not the same for every border.

However, I'd like to change their black color into a less obtrusive medium gray.

Changing the pen color has no effect. I think word expects me to manually repaint all of the borders, which I do not have time for.

Changing the color in the borders and shading menu also has no effect.

Is there a way of changing the color of the borders for the whole table while keeping all other styles?

Thanks

Francesco

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-10-07T02:05:11+00:00

    Have worked with this Menu?:

    Click on automatic and a Color menu appears.

    Below clicking on width can set the line widths.

    _________

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    The questions, discussions, opinions, replies & answers I create, are solely mine and mine alone and do not reflect upon my position as a Community Moderator.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-10-07T11:42:55+00:00

    Daniel and Bob,

    thanks for your clarification. That's unfortunate, though.

    It does not look like a very complicated feature.

    Having only the possibility of changing ALL the attributes at the same time seems like a strong limitation.

    I'll try and suggest an improvement there, posting another sad smiley to microsoft...

    For sure it will take less to change the colors manually than looking into VBA.

    Thanks again.

    Francesco

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  3. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435K Reputation points
    2016-10-07T10:40:31+00:00

    I'm afraid Daniel is correct... the 3 attributes of Borders are tied together. There is no means of making a global change to only 1 of those attributes. What Phillip illustrated is just the main Format> Borders & Shading dialog which is echoed by the tools on the Table Design contextual tab of the Ribbon. The type of customization you describe has to be applied directly, one instance at a time, after the global choices have been made.

    I don't believe a Table Style will be of any help... Formatting of any type cannot be defined for individual cells other than the 4 corners: Top Left/Right & Bottom Left/Right. Any interior cell formatting has to be specified on the basis of a complete Row or a complete Column.

    There may be some VBA method of changing only the border color but that's outside my realm.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-10-07T05:34:24+00:00

    Hi Philip,

    and thanks a lot for the very detailed reply.

    As  I mention, the borders and shading menu has no effect, either from format or from te table properties dialog box.

    Does that work in your case?

    I am not on my mac now, but I'm pretty sure my word is up to date.

    Thanks again

    Francesco

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-10-07T09:34:58+00:00

    Unless W2016 has a feature I don't know about, you are expected to do like you say. Borders have always been closed packages that include thickness, color and type of line.

    If you are going to reuse those table schemes, try to define them as a table styles. Their performance has not been stellar and they are not too intuitive, but they might be a lot of help in the right direction.

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