Specific Formatting Challenge with Fixed Table Style

[grv1_]

Hello Microsoft Community,

I am currently working with the latest version of Microsoft Word and have encountered a specific formatting challenge with tables. I need a table style that meets specific requirements. The document is used by a program as a style sheet to create new word documents.

I need to create a table where the first two rows are shaded in a light gray color. The standard table styles in Word allow for shading the header row, but I require this shading to be applied to both the first and second row.

Here are the specific requirements:

1. The first two rows of the table need to be shaded in a light gray color.
2. This needs to be part of a table style, so it can be easily applied to multiple tables throughout new documents.
3. Manual shading of each table is not a feasible solution.

I have looked through the existing options in Word and haven't found a straightforward way to accomplish this. It seems like I might be missing something or perhaps there's a workaround that I'm not aware of.

Here you can see what my configured table style produces (top), versus what I need (bottom):

Thank you in advance for your help!

Best regards

[#2]

@grv1_ Select the  bottom table and then go to File>Options>Proofing>AutoCorrect options and in the Replace control insert something like Spectable and then click on OK.

Thereafter. when you want an instance of that table, with the cursor in the required location, type Spectable and press the spacebar and you will then have an instance of that table.

[#3]

This is helpful, but isn't suitable in my case. I'm using the File as a style sheet and other documents automatically generate their content based on the fixed styles. Therefore I can only use a fixed table style, which is applied to an unformatted table.
Nevertheless thank you for your help!