Altering Row Height

Altering Row Height

Altering row height makes the best use of the worksheet space, just like adjusting column width does. You can set the row height manually or let Excel make the adjustments for you with its AutoFit feature.

By default, Excel makes a row a bit taller than the tallest text in the row. For instance, if the tallest text is 10 points tall, Excel makes the row 13.5 points tall. The default row height is set to 13.5 points, based on the default font size, 10 points.

In the upcoming To Do exercise, you alter row height with a mouse.

To Do: Alter Row Height

1. Move the mouse pointer to the bottom row header borders, row 1. You should see a double-headed arrow. Use the bottom border of the row header to adjust row height.

2. Hold down the mouse button and drag the border. As you are dragging the border, Excel shows you the row height in a ScreenTip (a buff- color box).

3. When you see a height of 30.00 in the ScreenTip, release the mouse button. Excel makes the row taller.

To change the row height for two or more rows, click and drag over the row headers with the mouse pointer. Then release the mouse button. Move the mouse pointer to one of the row header borders. Use the bottom border of the row header to alter row height. Hold down the mouse button and drag the border. Release the mouse button, and the row height is adjusted for all the rows you selected.

Excel's AutoFit feature lets you quickly make a row as tall as its tallest entry. Simply double-click the bottom border of the row header. To change more than one row at a time, click and drag over the desired row headers and then double-click the bottom row header border.

Finding Data

With Excel's Find command, you can locate specific data, text, characters, formatting, and special characters . For example, what if you want to find the row that contains sales data for any category with the word cover in it. You can search for data in three ways:

• Find the first occurrences of the data

• Find other occurrences of that data

• Find all occurrences of that data

In the next To Do exercise, you search for the first instance of the word cover .

To Do: Find Data

1. Choose Edit, Find. Excel opens the Find and Replace dialog box.

2. Click the Find tab, if necessary.

   You can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F to display the Find and Replace dialog box with the Find tab selected.

   
   

3. In the Find What text box, type cover .

4. Click the Find Next button. Excel finds the first occurrence of the information and makes it the active cell .

5. If you want to continue searching for other instances of the data, click the Find Next button.

If you want to specify how to search for the data, click the Options button. You can search by rows or columns , select a worksheet element such as Formulas, Values, or Comments, distinguish to match upper- and lowercase, and find only cells with the exact characters in Find What text box.