Tables are used to arrange the data in the form of rows and columns. Moreover, they organize and summarize the data so that it can be viewed and analyzed easily. MS PowerPoint also allows you to insert tables in the presentations. Accordingly, this article covers how to create and manipulate tables in PowerPoint presentations using C#.
- C# API to Create and Manipulate Tables in PowerPoint
- Create a Table in PowerPoint Presentations
- Access a Table in a Presentation
- Format Text in PowerPoint Tables
- Lock Aspect Ratio of the Tables
C# API to Create and Manipulate Tables in PowerPoint
To create and manipulate tables in PowerPoint presentations, we will use Aspose.Slides for .NET. The API lets you create, manipulate and convert PowerPoint and OpenOffice documents. You can download the API’s DLL and add a reference to it in your project. Also, you can install it using NuGet.
PM> Install-Package Aspose.Slides.NET
Create a Table in PowerPoint Presentations using C#
Creating a table using Aspose.Slides for .NET is a piece of cake. The following steps show how to create a table in a PowerPoint presentation using C#.
- First, create a new presentation or load an existing one using Presentation class.
- Then, get reference of the desired slide into an ISlide object.
- Define the width and height of columns and rows respectively in double[] arrays.
- Insert a new table in presentation using ISlide.Shapes.AddTable() method.
- Get reference of the newly created table in an ITable object.
- Create a loop to iterate through the rows of the table.
- Create a nested loop to iterate through the cells of the table and in each iteration, perform the following operations.
- Set text of the cell using ITable.Rows[rowIndex][cellIndex].TextFrame.Text property.
- Get reference of the cell’s formatting into an ICellFormat object and set cell’s border style, if required.
- Finally, save the presentation using Presentation.Save(String, SaveFormat) method.
The following code sample shows how to create a table in a PowerPoint presentation.
| // Create or load presentation | |
| Presentation pres = new Presentation(); | |
| // Access first slide | |
| ISlide sld = pres.Slides[0]; | |
| // Define columns with widths and rows with heights | |
| double[] dblCols = { 50, 50, 50 }; | |
| double[] dblRows = { 50, 30, 30, 30, 30 }; | |
| // Add table shape to slide | |
| ITable tbl = sld.Shapes.AddTable(100, 50, dblCols, dblRows); | |
| // Set border format and text for each cell | |
| for (int row = 0; row < tbl.Rows.Count; row++) | |
| { | |
| for (int cell = 0; cell < tbl.Rows[row].Count; cell++) | |
| { | |
| // Add text to the cell | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].TextFrame.Text = "Cells_" + cell; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderTop.FillFormat.FillType = FillType.Solid; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderTop.FillFormat.SolidFillColor.Color = Color.Red; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderTop.Width = 5; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderBottom.FillFormat.FillType = (FillType.Solid); | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderBottom.FillFormat.SolidFillColor.Color= Color.Red; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderBottom.Width =5; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderLeft.FillFormat.FillType = FillType.Solid; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderLeft.FillFormat.SolidFillColor.Color =Color.Red; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderLeft.Width = 5; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderRight.FillFormat.FillType = FillType.Solid; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderRight.FillFormat.SolidFillColor.Color = Color.Red; | |
| tbl.Rows[row][cell].CellFormat.BorderRight.Width = 5; | |
| } | |
| } | |
| // Save PPTX to disk | |
| pres.Save("table.pptx", SaveFormat.Pptx); |
The following screenshot shows the table that we have created using the above code.
Access a Table in a Presentation using C#
You can also access the tables in the existing PowerPoint presentations and manipulate them as required. The following are the steps to access the tables in a presentation.
- First, load an existing presentation using Presentation class.
- Then, get reference of the desired slide into an ISlide object.
- Create an instance of ITable and initialize it with null.
- Iterate through all IShape objects in ISlide.Shapes collection.
- Filter the shapes of type ITable.
- Type cast the shape into ITable and manipulate it as required.
- Finally, save the presentation using Presentation.Save(String, SaveFormat) method.
The following code sample shows how to access tables in a PowerPoint presentation using C#.
| // Load presentation | |
| using (Presentation pres = new Presentation("UpdateExistingTable.pptx")) | |
| { | |
| // Access the first slide | |
| ISlide sld = pres.Slides[0]; | |
| // Initialize null TableEx | |
| ITable tbl = null; | |
| // Iterate through the shapes and set a reference to the table found | |
| foreach (IShape shp in sld.Shapes) | |
| if (shp is ITable) | |
| tbl = (ITable)shp; | |
| // Set the text of the first column of second row | |
| tbl[0, 1].TextFrame.Text = "New"; | |
| //Write the PPTX to Disk | |
| pres.Save("table1_out.pptx", Aspose.Slides.Export.SaveFormat.Pptx); | |
| } |
Format Text in PowerPoint Tables using C#
Aspose.Slides for .NET also allows you to set formatting of the tables quite easily, as demonstrated in the steps below.
- First, load an existing presentation using Presentation class.
- Then, get reference of the desired slide into an ISlide object.
- Retreive the reference of the desired table from slide into an ITable object.
- Set formatting using PortionFormat, ParagraphFormat, and TextFrameFormat classes.
- Assign formatting to the table using ITable.setTextFormat() methods.
- Finally, save the presentation using Presentation.Save(String, SaveFormat) method.
The following code sample shows how to set the formatting of the table in PowerPoint using C#.
| // Create or load presentation | |
| Presentation presentation = new Presentation(); | |
| // Get reference of the slide | |
| ISlide slide = presentation.Slides[0]; | |
| // Get reference of the table | |
| ITable someTable = presentation.Slides[0].Shapes[0] as ITable; // let's say that the first shape on the first slide is a table | |
| // Set table cells' font height | |
| PortionFormat portionFormat = new PortionFormat(); | |
| portionFormat.FontHeight = 25; | |
| someTable.SetTextFormat(portionFormat); | |
| // Set table cells' text alignment and right margin in one call | |
| ParagraphFormat paragraphFormat = new ParagraphFormat(); | |
| paragraphFormat.Alignment = TextAlignment.Right; | |
| paragraphFormat.MarginRight = 20; | |
| someTable.SetTextFormat(paragraphFormat); | |
| // Set table cells' text vertical type | |
| TextFrameFormat textFrameFormat = new TextFrameFormat(); | |
| textFrameFormat.TextVerticalType = TextVerticalType.Vertical; | |
| someTable.SetTextFormat(textFrameFormat); | |
| // Save presentation | |
| presentation.Save("result.pptx", SaveFormat.Pptx); |
Lock Aspect Ratio of Tables in PowerPoint using C#
You can also lock the aspect ratio of the tables in PowerPoint presentations using C#. The following are the steps to achieve this.
- First, load an existing presentation using Presentation class.
- Then, get reference of the desired slide into an ISlide object.
- Create a table or retrieve the reference of an existing table into an ITable object.
- Set ITable.ShapeLock.AspectRatioLocked property to !ITable.ShapeLock.AspectRatioLocked to lock the aspect ratio.
- Finally, save the presentation using Presentation.Save(String, SaveFormat) method.
The following code sample shows how to lock the aspect ratio of the table in PowerPoint presentations.
| // Load presentation | |
| using (Presentation pres = new Presentation("presentation.pptx")) | |
| { | |
| // Get reference of the table | |
| ITable table = (ITable)pres.Slides[0].Shapes[0]; | |
| Console.WriteLine($"Lock aspect ratio set: {table.ShapeLock.AspectRatioLocked}"); | |
| // Lock aspect ratio | |
| table.ShapeLock.AspectRatioLocked = !table.ShapeLock.AspectRatioLocked; // invert | |
| Console.WriteLine($"Lock aspect ratio set: {table.ShapeLock.AspectRatioLocked}"); | |
| // Save presentation | |
| pres.Save("pres-out.pptx", SaveFormat.Pptx); | |
| } |
Get a Free API License
You can use Aspose.Slides for .NET without evaluation limitations by getting a free temporary license.
Conclusion
In this article, you have learned how to create tables in PowerPoint presentations using C#. Moreover, you have seen how to access and manipulate existing tables in the PowerPoint presentations programmatically. In addition, you can visit the documentation to explore more about Aspose.Slides for .NET. Also, you can ask your questions via our forum.