Set Line Weight for Table Borders in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

Table borders in PowerPoint are usually thin, possessing just 1pt. weight (thickness). That's not as thin as a human hair, but still quite thin. Most of the times you may not need to change that value since you can clearly see the border, and it is not too eye-catching. However, if you want to change the weight of table borders, it can be done in the same way as you would change their color or line style attributes. Your table borders can be of any weight starting from a miniscule 0.25 pt. to a haughty 6pt., and no higher. Even 6 pt. is very thick for a table border, so be careful just to make sure that your table borders don't look too blocky or distracting.

Follow these steps to learn how you can change the weight of table borders in existing tables, and set the weight for new ones in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows:

Change the Line Weight of Existing Table Borders:

Let us start with changing the line weight of borders within existing tables:

1. Open your presentation and navigate to the slide where your table is located, and select it. Make sure that the borders within this table are set to be visible. Access the Table Tools Design contextual tab (highlighted in red within Figure 1) of the Ribbon. Within this tab, click the Pen Weight button (highlighted in blue within Figure 1).
2. 
   Figure 1: Pen Weight button
2. This opens the Pen Weight drop-down menu containing various weight options for table borders, as shown in Figure 2.
3. 
   Figure 2: Pen Weight drop-down menu
4. Select any line weight for your table border by clicking on the value you prefer. In Figure 2 you can see the 3 pt option (highlighted in red) being selected.
3. Now, the Draw Table button (highlighted in red within Figure 3) will get automatically selected as a result of selecting a Pen Weight, and you should be able to see your table border line weight, as shown highlighted in green within Figure 3. Additionally, your cursor turns into a Pencil icon, as shown in Figure 3 (highlighted in blue). Click this cursor carefully on a segment of the border between two cells (refer to Figure 3 again).
4. 
   Figure 3: Cursor changed to a Pencil icon
Note: Make sure you do not click anywhere other than over a table border segment. Otherwise you may end up creating new cells! If that happens, immediately press Ctrl + Z to undo.
4. This will change the thickness of the clicked border segment to the thickness value that you selected earlier within the Pen Weight drop-down gallery, as shown in Figure 4 (compare with Figure 3).
5. 
   Figure 4: Border line thickness changed
5. Notice that your mouse cursor will continue sporting the Pencil icon. This allows you to continue clicking on all the border segments of the table. Yes, we know this can be cumbersome. We do explain a workaround in the box below.
Tip: There is an alternative way to change the thickness of the borders on the entire table. After you select any line weight within the Pen Weight drop-down menu, click on the down-arrow beside the Borders button (highlighted in red within Figure 5). From the resultant drop-down gallery, select the All Borders option (or another suitable option) as shown in Figure 5. Yes, you should choose this option again even if this is the option that is already selected.

Figure 5: All Borders option to be selected
This changes the line thickness of table borders on the entire table. To learn more about various Border options, refer to our Toggle Visibility of Table Borders in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows tutorial.
6. Once done, click on the Slide Area outside the table (or just press the Esc key) to change the cursor back to the arrow pointer icon.
6. Figure 6 shows our sample table after we changed the weight of borders.
7. 
   Figure 6: Border line thickness changed for the entire table

Set the Table Border Line Weight for the New Tables:

1. Access the Table Tools Design contextual tab (highlighted in red within Figure 1 shown earlier on this page) of the Ribbon by selecting any existing table, or by inserting and selecting a dummy table which you can delete later.
2. Within the Table Tools Design tab, select a weight for your table borders from the Pen Weight drop-down gallery, as explained in Steps 1, 2, and 3 in the preceding section.
3. Make sure that the Draw Table button (highlighted in red within Figure 7) is selected and your cursor has changed to a Pencil icon as shown in Figure 7 (highlighted in blue). You should be able to see the selected table border's Weight, as shown highlighted in green within Figure 7.
4. 
   Figure 7: Table being drawn with the Pen Weight selected
4. Draw a table as explained in our Draw Tables in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows tutorial. Figure 8 shows our sample table after we finished drawing, and distributed rows and columns.
5. 
   Figure 8: Table drawn after selecting border weight
5. Save your presentation often.

Tip: Even after you draw the table, or even while you are drawing a table, you can always change line weight of the border to end up with a table that sports thick outer borders and thin cell borders within, as shown in Figure 9, below.

Figure 9: Table drawn with various border line weights