In Microsoft Excel, row height is measured in points, the same units used to measure font size. When printing reports this makes it easy to relate the height of rows to the required line spacing. This means that it is possible to increase the line spacing by simply increasing the height of your rows.

The techniques used for changing column widths (something that Excel users do far more frequently) can also be used to change row height. Firstly we can make a selection and in the Cells section of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon, we can choose Format then Row Height. Doubling Excel\’s default row height will give us an approximation of double line spacing. Multiplying the default by a factor of 1.5 will approximate 1 1/2 line spacing, and so forth.

Excel\’s AutoFit facility can also be used to automatically resize row heights to accommodate the largest font size contained in a given selection. To use the AutoFit command on a single row, position the cursor at the bottom of the row heading and simply double-click. To AutoFit a range of rows, first make a selection and then double-click at the bottom of any of the selected row headings. The same result can also be achieved by using Format – AutoFit Row Height in the Cells section of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon.

In many circumstances, row height can be completely ignored since Excel will automatically adjust the height of rows to accommodate the largest font size found on each row. For example, let\’s say we instheert a header row at the top of a worksheet centred across all the columns containing data. If we increase the font size of this heading, Excel will automatically increase height of the row to accommodate the new font size, pushing the rest of the data down.

Another technique is to increase the row height interactively. This is done by positioning the cursor on the line below the row heading and dragging up or down. As you drag, Excel displays a tooltip containing the row height in points and in pixels.

When you increase the height of a row, the vertical alignment of your data becomes more apparent. By default, Excel aligns text at the bottom of the cell. When you have increased the row height, as you will often do with headings, changing the vertical alignment to centred is usually more visually appealing.

The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with TrainingCompany.Com, a UK IT training company offering Microsoft Excel 2007Classes at their central London training centre.

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