autosize cells in excel

[ZippyDan]

i often double-click on a cell's vertical or horizontal border to get the cell to auto-size to the max(textlength) of said column or row, especially when finalizing a document. this can get very tedious. is there a way to select all and have excel do this for an entire document at once?

 

[Fritoz]

From the Excel Help file:

To autofit all columns on the worksheet, click the Select All button and then double-click any boundary between two column headings. Or select all columns, point to Column on the Format menu, and then click AutoFit Selection.

 

[ZippyDan]

i guess i shouldve mentioned im in excel 07. i hate the ribbon. the first step doesnt seem to do anything, the second step doesnt exist thanks to the ribbon. also i need to do rows as well

 

[KeithTalent]

Ctrl-A, then double-click the line in-between any two columns, then double-click the line between any two rows.

KT

 

[ZippyDan]

i did that, doesn't seem to work as claimed: since clicking lines between specific rows and columns only seems to change those specific rows and columns

 

[KeithTalent]

Well I'm at a bit of a loss then. What happens if you have the entire sheet selected and you drag the columns or rows to make them larger, does only the one row/column adjust?

KT

 

[corkyg]

In the "Home" ribbon, navitage to the right above the box labeled "Cells," and click the down arrow by FORMAT. You can set default cell width and height there.

Another quick way to change width for all cells, just hit Ctrl-A (Select All) and drag the right margin of the first cell label to where you want it - all cells will then change width.

 

[ZippyDan]

if i have multiple columns selected (applies to entire sheet also) then if i drag a specific column or row it changes only the involved columns in a way i can only explain with an example.

case 1: if i have two columns with no selection of width 2 and 2 and i drag the border of one column to make it larger then i end up with a column of width 3 and width 2. so my total width for the two columns changes from 4 to 5

case 2: if i have two columns selected of width 2 and 2 and i drag the border, then the max width will not exceed 4, so if i make one column width 3 then the other one will change to width 1

 

[ZippyDan]

Originally posted by: corkyg
In the "Home" ribbon, navitage to the right above the box labeled "Cells," and click the down arrow by FORMAT. You can set default cell width and height there.

Another quick way to change width for all cells, just hit Ctrl-A (Select All) and drag the right margin of the first cell label to where you want it - all cells will then change width.

i dont necessarily want them all to be the same width, i want them all to autosize (the same thing that happens when you double click a column/row border)

 

[mayest]

Guaranteed to work: Select the columns, by clicking and dragging across the headers, that you want to autofit and then double-click on one of the column borders just like you would for a single column.

 

[ZippyDan]

Originally posted by: mayest
Guaranteed to work: Select the columns, by clicking and dragging across the headers, that you want to autofit and then double-click on one of the column borders just like you would for a single column.

ok THAT worked. thanks. i guess the original poster was right... ALMOST. but with the slight difference that "Select All" (Ctrl + A) does not work, you must select the columns by dragging across the headers just as mayest said above.

 

[corkyg]

As an aside - you might be interested in this article in the May issue of Microsoft TechNet - how to customize ribbons in Office 2007.

2007

 

[Fritoz]

Originally posted by: mayest
ok THAT worked. thanks. i guess the original poster was right... ALMOST. but with the slight difference that "Select All" (Ctrl + A) does not work, you must select the columns by dragging across the headers just as mayest said above.

Just a clarification for future users: The "Select All" button mentioned in my post isn't the same thing as CTRL+A. It's the empty "cell" in the very top-left corner of the spreadsheet (North of Row 1 and West of Column A, if that makes sense). CTRL+A will only highlight your active cells, whereas the corner button highlights the entire worksheet.

 

[ZippyDan]

Originally posted by: Fritoz

Originally posted by: mayest
ok THAT worked. thanks. i guess the original poster was right... ALMOST. but with the slight difference that "Select All" (Ctrl + A) does not work, you must select the columns by dragging across the headers just as mayest said above.

Just a clarification for future users: The "Select All" button mentioned in my post isn't the same thing as CTRL+A. It's the empty "cell" in the very top-left corner of the spreadsheet (North of Row 1 and West of Column A, if that makes sense). CTRL+A will only highlight your active cells, whereas the corner button highlights the entire worksheet.

Ah cool. Well then they should label that cell

Also, CTRL + A is the shortcut for Edit -> Select All in almost every program (including pre-ribbon MS Word), so that is very confusing.

 

[GrumpyMan]

If you go to the very top left little square on the spread sheet, the one with an arrow so to speak (between the A and the 1), it highlights the whole spread sheet. Then you can double click the row or column line to auto-size it.