Alex Ruben
How To Add Color to a Table in Google Docs
Making tables more colorful in Google Docs isn’t rocket science, but it can feel kinda clunky if you’re used to more advanced tools or just expecting a straightforward option. Plus, sometimes the colors don’t want to show up properly, or you might not even realize there’s an option to change border colors or cell backgrounds. If you’ve ever stared at a boring grid and thought, “This could be way more eye-catching,” then this quick rundown should help. It’s not perfect — Google Docs is kinda limited — but these tricks can seriously level up your documents, especially if you’re trying to make them look a little more professional or just less dull. Expect to learn how to color individual cells, groups of cells, and even tweak the borders of your tables. Could be handy for reports, project plans, or whatever you’re throwing together in a pinch.
How to Fill a Table with Color in Google Docs
Method 1: Accessing and Creating a Basic Table
First off, you gotta get that table in your document. Sometimes people skip this part, and then get frustrated trying to find the menu to change colors. So, here’s how:
- Head over to https://docs.google.com and sign in if you haven’t already.
- Create a new document by clicking on Blank.
- Insert a table via Insert > Table. Pick the number of rows and columns you want. Easy enough, but watch out — on some setups, the table options menu can be kinda hidden depending on your screen size or browser. Just click around.
Method 2: Coloring a Single Cell – The Quick Way
This one’s how you change the background of just one cell if you want to highlight something. Works for labels, headers, whatever. The reason it helps? Keeps your document looking clean and organized without overwhelming everything. And honestly, it’s kinda weird how Google Docs doesn’t have a obvious color picker for cells—you gotta go through some menus. On some browsers or accounts this might feel slower than it should, and it’s not super intuitive, but it’s doable.
- Right-click the cell you want to color.
- Click on Table options — nope, not just Cell background color here. You actually have to go to the sidebar that pops up. If nothing shows, try clicking on the cell and then looking for a small paint icon or the small context menu that includes table options.
- In the sidebar, find and click on Cell background color.
- Select your preferred color from the palette. If you want custom colors, you might need to click + Custom to input your hex code, but be warned, Google Docs doesn’t have a full palette like Sheets.
Why this helps? Because it’s the only built-in way to add background color per cell, and it works pretty reliably once you get the hang of it. Expect a slight delay if you’re on a slow internet or using a browser like Safari where some features lag — but generally, it sticks.
Method 3: Coloring Multiple Cells Brightens the Table
Need to color a chunk of cells? That’s where things get a tiny bit more manual, but still straightforward. No, you can’t just hit a button to fill multiple at once, but you can select a block and change all their backgrounds together. Handy for headers or grouping info visually.
- Click and hold your mouse to drag across the cells you want to color. Be precise — sometimes the selection can be finicky if your table is weirdly formatted.
- Right-click on that selection and choose Table options.
- Click on Background color from the menu that appears.
- A color palette shows up — pick your hue. If color consistency is key, try to use the same palette or custom hex codes.
One caveat: sometimes the selected cells don’t immediately update if you switch windows or if the document is laggy. That’s just Google Docs being Google Docs.
Method 4: Changing Border Color of the Whole Table
This one’s kinda sneaky. Changing the border color isn’t as obvious as filling cells. It’s useful if your table’s borders look too plain or you just wanna add some flair. Plus, it can help emphasize separate sections.
- Click inside the table or drag to select the entire table—on some setups, you’ll need to click a corner of the table or the whole row/column to get a proper selection.
- Right-click the selected table and see if Table border color pops up. If not, look for an option like Border color in the toolbar or a side menu. Sometimes you need to open the table’s sidebar menu if available.
- Pick the color you want for the borders. Notice that changing this might not update all borders at once unless you select a specific border style or manually set each one.
If it doesn’t work immediately, try refreshing or reselecting the table. On some browsers, Google Docs can be kinda flaky with these stylings.
Extra Tips & Troubleshooting
Some things to keep in mind — especially if your colors aren’t showing up as expected:
- Make sure you’re using Google Chrome or the latest version of your browser. Edge works too, but Safari sometimes weirds out.
- If colors aren’t sticking or showing wrong, clear browser cache or refresh the page. It’s dumb, but that often solves quirks.
- You can’t really create a *true* custom color palette in Google Docs like you can in Google Sheets. So, if your branding needs exact colors, prepare a palette beforehand or use hex codes.
Wrap-up
This might seem like a lot, but once you get used to fiddling with the menus, filling tables with color in Google Docs becomes second nature. Just remember: the key is right-clicking and poking around a bit—Google has no fancy “fill color” button like PowerPoint or Word. Still, it’s enough to brighten up basic tables and make your documents less boring.
Summary
- Use right-click and Table options to find background & border colors.
- Color individual cells or multiple cells, but don’t expect it to be super smooth all the time.
- Changing table borders is doable but can be fiddly depending on your browser.
- Refresh or clear cache if colors don’t update immediately.
- Experiment with custom hex colors if needed for branding.
Final thoughts
Google Docs isn’t the most powerful table editor, but these tweaks help make tables look a bit more professional and less generic. It’s kinda frustrating that everything isn’t in one obvious place, but once you understand where to click, it’s not so bad. Hopefully, this shaves off a few minutes for someone trying to make their tables pop without jumping to fancy design tools. Fingers crossed this helps.