//www.online-tech-tips.com Excel’s grid-like appearance can seem static at times without the possibility of creating customized interfaces to match the needs of the data stored in a worksheet. Although this is true to some extent, Microsoft has built in to Excel the ability to instantly customize column widths and row heights to match the size of the data in the cells. Learn how to use Excel’s AutoFit feature to automatically change the size of columns and rows to the size of the data in a worksheet. There are limits to how big and small you can make columns and rows in Excel. Column widths and row heights with a value of zero are hidden in an Excel worksheet. This is the equivalent to using the hide column or row feature. Columns can have a maximum width of 255. This number represents the maximum number of characters a column can hold at the standard font size. Changing the font, the font size, and adding other characteristics to the font such as italics and bolding greatly reduce the maximum number of characters a column can hold. The default size of an Excel column is 8.43, which correlates to 64 pixels. Rows can have a maximum height of 409. This number represents how many one-seventy seconds of an inch the row can hold. The default size of an Excel row is 15, which correlates to 20 pixels or about one-fifth of an inch. Suppose in your Excel worksheet you have text in the A1 cell that extends beyond the 8.43 (64 pixels) default column width. Notice that although the column’s width cannot contain the length of the text, Excel allows the text to spill over into adjacent columns.
Select Column A, click on the Home tab on the Ribbon, and locate a section of the Ribbon almost all the way to the right labeled Cells. Click on the button titled Format and locate a section of the menu labeled Cell Size. Notice that there are three options for changing the width of a column.
Column Width – This option allows you to manually change the width of a column by typing in a number. This option isn’t useful because you can more easily accomplish the same thing by simply dragging the column to your desired size.
AutoFit Column Width – This is the option we want. This option will change the size of the column to a new size depending on the length of the contents of the cell in the column that takes up the most space.
Default Width – This option doesn’t actually change the width of any columns; it simply changes the default width of the columns for a particular worksheet.
On the Format button’s menu, select AutoFit Column Width and notice that the width of Column A has changed to contain the length of the text in the A1 cell.
Unlike column widths, Excel automatically adjusts the height of a row to accommodate the height of the text that takes up the most vertical space in each row. Therefore, the AutoFit Row Height feature found on the Format button is not as useful as the AutoFit Column Width feature.
When pasting data into an Excel worksheet, there are times when the row heights do not adjust automatically. When this happens, text will be cut off rather than spill over into another row either above or below.
To fix this, select the row with the cut-off text and click on Format>AutoFit Row Height. This will force Excel to change the height of the row to accommodate the unusually tall text.
Using Excel’s AutoFit feature you can automatically change the width of columns and the height of rows in a worksheet to accommodate different sized text without having to manually change the width and height values. A real time saver, the AutoFit feature can also make data in your worksheet easier to access and read.
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Excel Chapter 2
By default, Excel aligns date entries at the ____ of the column.
By default, Excel column widths are set at ____ characters, and row heights at ____ points.
Ctrl + F is the keyboard shortcut for
opening the Find & Replace dialog box with the Find tab active.
Excel provides _____ so that you can easily create a professional, consistent worksheet appearance.
Excel's Spelling feature begins spell checking at the
If you do not want to widen a column, what can you do to fit the text into the column?
Click the Wrap Text button in the Alignment group
Inserted rows are placed ____ the selected row(s) and inserted columns are placed to the ____ of the selected column(s).
Microsoft Office includes a gallery of media images where you can insert clip art, photographs, and illustrations in a document by using the _____ button on the Insert tab.
On which tab will you find the Insert button?
Once an image has been inserted, it can be
moved, resized, or deleted
Selecting which of these formatting options will always change the entire worksheet?
The ____ is the typeface used to display and print data. It is measured in
The Clear All option in the Clear button removes the ____ from the active cell.
contents, formats, and comments
The Find & Replace dialog box can be used to search for and replace
labels, values, and formats
The keyboard shortcut for cutting the selection and placing it on the Clipboard is
The keyboard shortcut for repeating a command is
The Themes group is located on the ____ tab.
This action sets the width of a column to fit the longest entry in the column
double-clicking the boundary line
This Excel feature can be used to replace a word in the worksheet with another word of similar meaning.
To center text between the top and bottom of a cell, click the _____ button in the Alignment group on the Home tab.
Using the keyboard shortcut F7 will start which feature?
What does Excel's Freeze Panes option do?
causes the specified rows and columns to remain fixed while scrolling
What does the Format Painter feature do?
copies formats from a selected cell to another cell
What happens when you click the Increase Indent button?
The contents of the active cell are indented approximately one character width
When changing a column width by dragging the boundary line to the right or left, a ____ is displayed to indicate the new width.
When copying or moving cells, if data already exists in the destination cells, Excel
When the worksheet is set to 100% magnification, clicking the Zoom In or Zoom Out buttons at either side of the Zoom slider bar magnifies or shrinks the display of the worksheet by _____ each time the button is clicked.
When you change the color of the fill in a cell, you are changing its
When you point at the border of a selected range of cells, the mouse pointer changes to a white arrow with the move icon attached. The move icon is represented by a
Which cell format is used by default in Excel?
Which of the following statements correctly describes the relationship between row height and font size?
Row height is automatically increased to accommodate an increase in font size.
Which of the following statements describes how the Borders button changes?
It updates to display the most recently selected border style.
You can decrease the number of digits displayed after the decimal point in a number by clicking the Decrease Decimal button, which is located in the ____ group on the ____ tab.