Framework: TT008 – tt008_0704

Part of series: TT008 Text Table 008 – Flow

Series Keywords: text flow; steps, horizontal, phasing, phases

These text tables are stylish and functional at the same time. They convey a lot of information easily and effectively. Because the information is confined within a table, alignments and sizing are easily addressed (both vertically and horizontally). Tables like this work best when the information in each cell is roughly the same amount/size – the arrows and arrow shafts look best when they are the same size.

Creating these tables with the imported arrows and arrow shafts is easy, but it does take a few minutes. The tutorial explains how to create the effects in detail, but the downloads also contain a worksheet and instructions. When you've completed the table formatting, just deleted the worksheet and instructions slides.

We've shown how this text table can be used to show flows for each row. You can also reverse the arrows or replace the arrow/arrow shaft with, for example, a question mark for the cells in the column of questions or an exclamation point for the cells in a column of answers. This technique will allow for any graphic to be inserted in a cell and is a great addition to your skill set. The underlying graphics that you import should be conducive to the readability of overlaying text, however.

There is no animated example for this series, but you can add text fields that can be animated with reveals if you wish. The table, itself, cannot be animated.