The use of special software products for working with tables and various databases significantly facilitates users to work with certain arrays of information. The most popular currently is the use of Microsoft Excel. It allows you to quickly and easily work with tables.
The specified program has quite flexible options for setting up and editing the data display format in rows and columns. Using the automatic selection of cell parameters allows literally two steps to fix the appearance of the table.
What is row height in Microsoft Excel
Tables in Microsoft Excel (MS Excel) are a collection of cells that have certain parameters. By default, their height contains visible text written in one line, and is 12.75 pixels. In cases where the line wrapping function is enabled for the table, the column height will automatically increase if the text placed in the cell is sufficiently voluminous.
At the same time, the specified software has several options for actions that help the user set the parameters at his discretion.
How can I set the line height
There are times when the user, for aesthetic reasons, wants all the cells in the table to have the same height. This formatting is often used for not too bulky tables that contain a small amount of text.
The desired parameter can be set using the “Line Height” function, which is located in the menu item: “Format”. In this case, all lines selected in advance will have a manually set parameter. Along with the above function, users often resort to manual selection of cell height. To do this, left-click on the lower border of the cell and drag the cursor to the desired side. If you need to change the height of several lines at once, then you should first select them, and then select the desired line height with the cursor.
The methods described above for adjusting cell parameters are rarely used. Users are more actively using the MS Excel function “Autofit line height”, the details of which will be described below.
Note that there are three easy ways to change the row height:
- Set parameters by specifying the exact height using the MS Excel function "Row Height".
- Manually stretch the height of the lines using the mouse cursor.
- Use in MS Excel "Auto Fit Row Height".
The third method is the fastest and most convenient. It allows you to customize the appearance of the table so that all the text entered in it is displayed.
What the table looks like before using auto-selection, for what reasons it may be needed
Suppose a user has compiled a table, in some cells of which a rather voluminous text is contained. However, the author does not have the ability to use wide columns, since the table will not fit on the landscape sheet when printing. That is, the text entered by the user in the cells is not displayed in full (as in the figure below).
In this case, before starting the process of formatting cells by automatically selecting the column width and row height in Excel, you should enable the option to transfer them. It is very simple to implement.
How to do automatic line breaks
To use this function, you must first select the part of the table for which you need to apply word wrap (the selection of the necessary cells is most easily done by holding the left mouse button and pulling it in a given direction). Then, in the “Format” menu section, select “Cell Format”, in the window that appears, go to the “Alignment” tab.
In it, in a special window, check the box next to the phrase "Wrap by words" and click the "OK" button. As a result of the above actions, the text in all selected cells will be transferred according to the words, and the edited table will take the form similar to what you see in the photo below. That is, the height of some lines will increase exactly as much as necessary so that all the text entered into the cells is displayed.
As you can see, in this case, MS Excel performed automatic selection of row heights on its own. The user did not need to perform any additional actions. This happens if a person does not change the height of the lines independently before using the "Word Wrap" option. That is, the height was set by default by the program.
If the automatic line height adjustment in Excel does not work automatically, the user should follow a few simple steps.
How to do autofit row height yourself
To quickly and easily bring the created table into proper form, you should select the necessary cells or the entire table. Then, in the menu item "Formatting" you need to select the item in Excel "Autofit line height". How to do this in practice is presented in the photo below.
After this action is completed, the table format will become easy to read, and all text entered into the cells will be displayed correctly, as in the next photo.
When it is not possible to autofit a row height
There are times when the above steps do not help to make the required changes to the table row parameters. How to make automatic line height in Excel if none of the tips suggested in the article help, and the user does not understand why automatic formatting does not work correctly? This is due in most cases to the fact that a person has combined some cells with each other.
If there are combined cells in the table, automatic row height matching for them will not function. The user will have to set the appropriate parameter for them manually. In this case, you must use the function to set the exact height of the line or manually stretch it with the cursor.
The function of automatic line height adjustment in Excel 2010 is quite popular among users, since it allows you to quickly bring the table to a convenient form, which will be easy for visual perception.