Working With Spreadsheet Rows In Microsoft Excel
In Microsoft Excel, row height is measured in points, the same units used to measure font size. When printing reports this makes it easy to relate the height of rows to the required line spacing. This means that it is possible to increase the line spacing by simply increasing the height of your rows.
The familiar techniques 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, we can choose Format – Row Height. Doubling Excel’s default row height will give us a fair approximation of double line spacing. Multiplying the default row height by a factor of 1.5 will give you about 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.
The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with TrainingCompany.Com, an independent computer training company offering Microsoft Excel 2007training courses in London and throughout the UK.
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February 6, 2010 by Mark Benson