When formatting tables in Design view, you can set properties for the entire table or for selected rows, columns, or cells in the table. When a property, such as background color or alignment, is set to one value for the whole table and another value for individual cells, cell formatting takes precedence over row formatting, which in turn takes precedence over table formatting.

The order of precedence for table formatting is as follows:

1. Cells

2. Rows

3. Table

For example, if you set the background color for a single cell to blue, then set the background color of the entire table to yellow, the blue cell does not change to yellow, since cell formatting takes precedence over table formatting.