Autosizing Rows in Excel

[dogleg43]

How do you get rows in Excel to automatically resize themselves to display all of the text?

Even if I select a row and then pick Format/Row/Autofit it does not always work. "Always" is the key word. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Problem seems to exist even with a brand new file.

I'm using Microsoft Office Excel 2003 & have done all updates.

 

[FrancisL]

Select the rows then double click the bottom of a row header works for me!

 

[cvg]

with text wrapping, double clicking doesn't always work. Anyone know why this works only intermittently?

 

[dogleg43]

"with text wrapping, double clicking doesn't always work. Anyone know why this works only intermittently? "

That's what I've found too. Oh well, just another MicroSoft bug.

 

[IRstuff]

Are you changing the fonts at all? Some fonts work better than others. Are your boxes overfilled with text?

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[cvg]

doesn't seem to have any relevance to font size or length of text string that I have seen

 

[IRstuff]

If you're asking a question about text wrapping, you should start a separate thread. However, text wrapping is fundamentally different that row height, so the question is what example are you refering to and what you think the behavior should be.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[cvg]

I'm not concerned with text wrapping, only with automatically resizing the rows. Any tips on how to make the autosizing work reliably?

 

[dogleg43]

The row height and text wrapping are related. If the "Wrap text" option is off and text is only on one line then the row doesn't need to change height (assuming the row was originally tall enough to display the text).

If "Wrap text" is on then the row needs to automatically change its height to display everything typed in that row....or at least that seems like how it should work.

 

[joerd]

There's another thing that I noted in cells with text wrapping and auto row height. If one of the lines of text in the cell fits exactly (or seems to fit exactly) then Excel will make the row height one line higher, and it will seem as if there is a blank line below the wrapped text.
This may have to do with the difference between the text on the screen and the printed text, they don't always have quite the same size. No fix for that, unless you resize the column width.

Cheers,
Joerd

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[IRstuff]

That behavior is entirely consistent within Excel. The Autofit is not like autofocus, i.e., it does not continuously monitor ALL your cells to determine if they need correcting. It's a one-time deal.

Autofit applies to a specific selection, so if you change something that causes obscuration of the contents, you have to re-run Autofit.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[melone]

I have also had issues with auto-size not working with cells that contain wrapped text...

 

[cvg]

the problem is not with automatic monitoring or autofocusing. It is the fact that the autofit function does not always work correctly and is sometimes unable to fit the text in the row. Repeated use of autofit will not adjust the row size large enough to show all the text. I ran across this again yesterday and had to manually adjust each row in a large spreadsheet by dragging so that I could read all the text.

I believe it may have some relevance to the type of font being used. It was working fine yesterday using arial font. Then I changed to arial narrow font and the autosize function would no longer size the rows large enough.

It appears to be a bug and hopefully somebody can enlighten all of us that have experienced this on how to avoid triggering the bug or some kind of work around.

 

[joerd]

Two more cents:

0.01 Autofit doesn't work properly if you have merged cells.
0.02 Depending on the fonts you use, column widths and row heights may appear differently when you print or view a worksheet in print preview. This behavior occurs when you use proportionally spaced fonts, such as a proportional TrueType font. Read

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214394

or google for "excel autofit row height" or something similar.


Cheers,
Joerd

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[psafety]

Are you using the same font as defined in the "Normal Style"?