Like columns, you can apply formatting to a whole row or several selected rows at once - font, font size, font color, bold, italics, and such. The only formatting that is unique to rows is Row Height. Row Height is measured in points, like font size, from 0 to 409 points. You will work with text formatting choices in the next project. For right now, let's look at row height.
Tip: A row height of zero hides the row.
The default setting for Row Height is AutoFit. The row height adjusts to hold the tallest text in that row. The AutoFit row height allows for white space between the text and the cell's border on all four sides, called cell padding.
What differences do you see in the examples, besides the shapes of the letters and the AutoFit row height? All are at 24 pt font size to make differences easier to see.
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Step-by-Step: Format Rows |
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What you will learn: | to adjust row height with AutoFit and font size to adjust row height by dragging row heading to adjust row height with Row Height dialog to adjust row height for multiple rows by dragging to adjust row height for multiple rows with AutoFit to hide a row to unhide a row |
Start with: trips3-Lastname-Firstname.xlsx (saved in previous lesson)
You will take advantage of the automatic resizing as you change the font size for the title.
Save
As trips4-Lastname-Firstname.xlsx on
your Class disk in the folder excel project2.
You don't have to change the height of the whole row to get the same effect. Increasing the font size of a single character in a cell in the row will work, too. AutoFit will increase the Row Height to match. Let's prove that.
Even blank spaces have a font size.
If you have a height error that you cannot find, look at spaces and blank
cells in the row.
Save.
[trips4-Lastname-Firstname.xlsx]
Notice that the Row Height 26.25 is larger than the Font Size that you set to 20 points. This creates the white space around the text. The larger the font size of the text, the more white space surrounds the text in the cell.
If you drag by accident, you will resize the row height. Use Undo to reverse this, if necessary.
The Row Height dialog appears.
Drag the bottom edge of row 3 down. Watch the pixels
change.
26 pixels is 19.50 but 27 pixels is 20.25.
You cannot set the row height to exactly 20 points. A pixel is the smallest dot on the screen. The screen cannot show a fraction of a pixel! The dialog did not warn us that a setting of 20 points would not come out exact.
Leave row 3 at 19.50 points (26 pixels).
Select Rows 5, 6,and 7 by dragging across the row headings.
While you drag, a ScreenTip shows how many rows you are selecting, either like 3R or like 3R x 163840. That can be very helpful when you are trying to select a large number of rows!
Drag downwards until the ScreenTip shows a height of 20.25 points.
Confusing effect: As you drag, the row headings resize but the rows do not until you release the mouse button.
The spacing you just created will make the sheet too big if applied to all rows. You should return the rows to the AutoFit height. (Yes, Undo would work here, but you are practicing with Row Heights!)
Sometimes you want to temporarily hide some rows to make the sheet easier to
read. Or perhaps you have calculations in cells that you don't really need to
see at all because they are just used in other calculations.
You can hide or unhide rows using the Hide or Unhide command on the menu from the Format Cells button or from a right click menu. Or, you can drag the headers or set the row height to zero to hide. Hiding is easier than unhiding! To reveal the hidden rows, you must first find them and select them. Then Unhide will reveal the rows again or you can set a new row height or use AutoFit to do that. So many ways to do things!
These same procedures work with columns, too.
Your selected rows vanish! Notice how the numbers skip now in the row headings from 17 to 24. Sneaky!
Excel 2007, 2010: The only clue that rows are hidden is that the numbers skip.
Excel 2013, 2016:
New feature - A gap shows between headers when there are hidden rows.
When the mouse pointer is over this gap, the shape changes from the normal Resize Row shape to one with a two lines
, Resize Hidden Rows. What you do while the pointer is in this shape applies to all of the hidden rows.
To make hidden rows appear again is a bit trickier. You cannot select just these rows since they are out of sight. There is no menu command for selecting particular rows.
Drag from row 17 to row 24, selecting the whole rows.
You have also selected the invisible rows in between: 18
through 23.
Note the number of rows in the screen tip while you
are
dragging.
Alternate method: In the Name box, type 17:24 and press ENTER.
Double-click the bottom edge of the row headings in your selection.
AutoFit returns all rows to
the default height. Whew!
Alternate method: Right click the selection and choose Unhide from the context menu.