Tables are an easy way to get the information in a structured manner and when you want to communicate this information in an organized way by mail..that is quite a time saver for the recipient. Now, what if this table is directly available in the mail body.. it will surely be a welcome addition since opening the file as an attachment is a hassle by itself.
While it is convenient and time-saving if the table is made available in the email body but Gmail, the widely used mail platform does not support the feature of creating the table in its compose window. It is not a matter of concern anymore, as here are a few methods for you to insert the table in the message part of Gmail.
Table of Contents
Method-1 Using Copy-Paste
Now consider this sample table created in MS Excel for purpose of illustration.
In this method, we create a table in Spreadsheet/Word processor application and then copy the table and paste it into the email. But before copying the table and its contents make sure that Plain text mode is unticked in the compose window of Gmail. Follow the steps below to do the same.
1. Click More options, the one with the three dots at the bottom right of compose window.
2. Untick the Plain text mode.
Now let us discuss the use of this method in the applications enlisted below.
#1- From Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is the most preferable application as data is already in tabular form. If you try to copy the above table from MS Excel and paste it into Gmail. The table data will be copied into the message but without the table borders, as depicted below.
In order to insert the table with the borders into your mail do the following.
- Select the table from top right to bottom left, right-click on the created table, and select Format Cells.
2. In the Format Cells dialog box click the Border tab and add an outline to the table and border to cells. You can also customize the font and cell background by selecting the Font and Fill tab respectively. For the purpose of the demonstration, only the border and outline are added here.
3. Now right-click on the table, and copy and paste it into the mail message. Look at the table below inserted in the mail message with borders
#2-FromGoogle Sheets app
The second most preferred application is the Google sheets spreadsheet application. In this application the table is copied into Gmail with the borders, hence you can skip the step of adding borders unless you want to format the border.
- Open Gmail in your web browser. In a new tab, click on the Google apps symbol.
- From the list of Google apps, scroll down, search for the Sheets app and open it.
3. In the sheets tab, open a new Spreadsheet by selecting the + symbol above Blank.
4. Create the required table in Google sheets and format the table and text as per your need. Below is a sample table created in Google sheets.
5. In the sheets, select the table, right-click and choose Copy.
6. Open the Gmail tab and paste the contents into your new mail message as shown below.
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