Adjusting Row Height In Microsoft Excel 2007
Microsoft Excel measures row height in points, the same units used to measure font size. When creating reports this makes it easy to relate the height of rows to the required line spacing. This means that you can increase the line spacing simply by increasing the height of your rows.
The methods used for changing column widths (something that Excel users do far more frequently) can also be used to change row height. Firstly. we can make a selection and. in the Cells section of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon, choose Format then Row Height. If you double Excel’s default row height, you will obtain an approximation of double line spacing. If you multiple the default by a factor of 1.5, you will obtain approximately 1 1/2 line spacing, and so forth.
Excel’s AutoFit facility can also be used to automatically resize the height of rows to accommodate the largest font size contained in a given selection. To AutoFit a single row position the cursor at the bottom of the row heading and simply double-click. To AutoFit a range of rows make a selection and then double-click at the bottom of any of the row headings. The same thing can also be achieved by using Format – AutoFit Row Height in the Cells section of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon.
It is very often the case that row height can be completely ignored since Excel will automatically adjust the height of rows to accommodate the largest font size found on each row. Let us suppose, for example, that we insert a header row at the top of a worksheet centred across all the columns containing data. If we were to increase the font size of our heading, Excel will automatically increase the height of the row to accommodate the new font size, pushing the rest of the data down.
It is also possible to increase the row height interactively. This is done by placing the cursor on the line below the row heading and dragging up or down. As you drag, Excel displays the row height, both in points and in pixels.
Increasing the height of a row makes the vertical alignment of your text more apparent. By default Excel aligns text vertically at the bottom of the cell. In the case of headings, changing the vertical alignment to centred is often far more useful.
Changing Column Widths in Excel Spreadsheets
Microsoft Excel has a number of different ways of changing the width of columns and the height of rows. The width of columns is specified in characters. By default, every column has a width of just over eight characters. This means that if you’re using the spreadsheets primarily for numerical data, you can enter eight digits in each column using the default width.
If you plan to modify the default width, it makes sense to do so before you start entering data into your worksheet. For example, if you know that you’ll be entering fairly short pieces of data in each column, you might want to reduce the default width. To customise the default width, go to the Cells section of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon. Click the Format button and choose Default Width from the drop-down. In the window which appears, you will see Excel’s standard column width of approximately 8 characters. Simply input a new entry and click OK.
As long as you haven’t changed a column width using any other technique, you can change the default width at any time and any cells that have been left at the default width will automatically change to reflect the new setting.
The second method of changing column widths is to use Excel’s AutoFit feature. This technique automatically adjusts the width of a column to ensure that the contents of the selected cells are completely visible. To AutoFit a range columns, highlight the cells that you want Excel to take into account or simply highlight the entire column. Next, position the cursor on the right hand edge of the column and, when the cursor changes to a double arrow, double-click.
To AutoFit data in a range of columns either select a range of data across several columns or highlight several entire columns. With your selection in place, choose Format then AutoFit Column Width in the Cells group of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon.
When using Excel’s AutoFit feature, it’s inevitable that you’ll end up with columns that have different widths. If you want a range of columns to have exactly the same width then simply select the range and choose Format then Column Widths and enter the required width.
Excel also allows you to interactively adjust the width of columns. To do this, position the cursor on the right hand edge of the column. When the cursor changes to a double arrow, click, hold and drag. As you drag, the width of the column is displayed both in characters and in pixels. This technique can be used either to adjust the width of a single column or a range of columns.
AutoFill And Custom Lists In Excel 2007
Excel’s AutoFill feature is based on the program’s ability to spot patterns in the data that you enter. For example, if you type “Week 1″ in a given cell, you can have Excel automatically fill in “Week 2″, “Week 3″, etc. simply by dragging the AutoFill handle. This is to be found in the bottom right of the cell. If the cursor moves over it, the cursor changes appearance to a plus sign (+). When it changes you simply click, hold, drag in any direction and Excel will spot the pattern and maintain it to generate automatic data entries.
Whenever you use the AutoFill handle Excel displays the AutoFill Options drop down menu just below the last cell which has been automatically generated. If the program has not entered the correct data, you can choose one of the entries in the AutoFill Options to tell it what you actually meant it to do. For example, if you choose Copy Cells, you simply get an exact copy of what was in the original cell.
Excel also has the ability to automatically enter arbitrary series of data using a feature called Custom Lists. Certain lists are built into Excel, for example, the months of the year. To use the AutoFill feature, enter the first value in the list, for example, “Jan” or “January”. Next drag the AutoFill handle (located in the bottom right of the active cell) in any direction to automatically enter the rest of the custom list.
As well as these built-in lists, Excel allows you to create your own custom lists. For example, suppose you work for a company that has branches in several towns. It’s a safe bet that you’ll need to list these towns quite frequently in your spreadsheets. You could therefore save yourself considerable time by setting up the towns as a custom list.
To do this, simply select cells in one of your worksheets that contain the information. Next, click on the Office button and choose Excel options. Click on “Edit Custom Lists” in the “Popular” category. Excel displays the contents of the cells that we highlighted. To convert the selected data into a custom list, we simply click on the “Import” button.
This custom list can now be used in any of our worksheets, not just the sheet that contained the original information. Whenever we need out list, we simply type the first value. We then use the AutoFill handle to generate the remaining entries. When using AutoFill, you can drag in any direction and you don’t have to start with the first element in the custom list.
Custom lists can also be created directly in the “Custom Lists” dialog box. To do this, click on the “List Entries” button and type the entries separated by a carriage return. When you’ve finished entering the list, click on the Add button.
To delete an unwanted custom list, just click on it and press the “Delete” button. Excel checks that you want to delete the list and when you click “OK”, the custom list is removed.