Scroll down to the table. Check the "Preferred Width" box to enable the text box next to it. Add length to the table by inserting additional rows. You can also add columns this way, though it won't affect the size of the table.

Hover over the left or right border of the table. You will see the cursor change to a double-headed arrow. This process also works on the bottom border of the table to make the table longer, but does not work on the top border. Eliminate entire rows from the table, which will shrink it by highlighting the row.

Drag this line up or down or left or right to resize this part of the table. You can change lines individually, in groups, or all at once. Select the line or lines you want to customize. To select a group of lines and drag the mouse pointer over the line numbers.

When you are in page layout mode, line heights are measured in inches instead of points, and you can make line height settings here. If you prefer to use centimeters or millimeters instead, change the page ruler to metric.

Select the Advanced tab and then scroll down to the Display section. It may differ slightly or significantly from other versions or products. Alan Shembera began writing for local newspapers in Texas and Louisiana. His professional career includes both Computer techologies, information editor and income tax preparer. Sambera now writes full-time about business and technology.

However, you can easily change the height and width for one or more rows and columns. Default column width for all columns. The default row height for each row depends on the largest font size and the font selected in any of the cells in that row. However, you can choose a specific height for any of the rows, as well as a specific column width for any of the columns.

The height can be different for different rows, and the width can be different for different columns. If you want to adjust one line, you can move the cursor over the bottom of the line until it becomes a double arrow bar. As you drag the cursor, the changing height is displayed in a popup window.

Change line height with mouse

You can do the same to change the width of a column: drag the double arrow pointer left or right on the right border of the column. The column width to the left of the border changes the width. The width of other columns does not change. You can be more precise when specifying the height of one or more lines by entering a specific number for the height. To do this, move your mouse over the row header until it changes into a right arrow. If you don't see the row headers.

Choose Row Height from the pop-up menu. You can specify the exact width for one or more columns. Select columns with column headings as you would for rows, but drag left or right to select multiple adjacent rows. Here is what our worksheet looks like with the height of the first three rows and the width of the first three columns changed.

You can change the line height to the default height, but many of these are not necessarily the default height. The current default height will be the one that matches the largest font size and font used on that line. In other words, the line-height of the selected line will be adjusted to automatically match the contents of that line.

To automatically fit on one line, you can move the mouse over the bottom border of the desired line header until it turns into a double-arrow bar, as if you were dragging the border to change the line height. The line height changes to match the maximum font size and font used on that line.

There is also an option to autofit the width of selected columns, but it works in a slightly different way. When you select one or more columns and then select "Auto Focus Column Width" from the "Cell Size" menu in the "Cells" section of the Home tab, the selected column will only resize if any cell in that column has content. Otherwise, if all cells in a column are empty, the size of that column will not be affected.

You can also automatically change the width of a column to fit the widest content in that column by moving the mouse over the border on the desired column of the column until it turns into a double arrow bar, just like dragging the border to change the width of the column. The column width is adjusted to fit the widest cell content in that column. This also only works with columns that are not completely empty.

Because the default row height is affected by the font and font size assigned to the cells in each row, you cannot specify a value for the default row height. However, the default column width for all columns in the current worksheet can be changed.

The width of all columns on the current sheet is resized to the specified width, no matter how wide that content is in any of the cells. Are your tables always as small as they can be? This article covers common methods for reducing file size.

My files always seem to grow to epic proportions. Large files may take longer than necessary to open, be more difficult to ship via e-mail, may result in extra pages being printed, may increase the chance of "out of memory" error messages, or cause other unusual spreadsheet behavior.

However, it should be noted that reducing the file size should not be everything and end all simulations. For example, arrays and data tables can reduce the size of a physical file and, as a result, increase the requirements for system memory. The following list is not an exhaustive list, but covers some of the main ideas.

Before moving on to more active sets, do the simpler things first. If your file contains redundant calculations, unused charts, and obsolete sheets, remove these items before implementing any of the following alternatives. Similarly, graphics and pictures take up a lot of space: consider reducing the size of graphics and using compressed images.

Sometimes the last cell of a worksheet may be outside the range of your actual data used. Clearing redundant rows and columns to reset the last cell can help resolve these issues. Sometimes the final cell may have many rows and columns from the original final cell. The above suggestion removes unnecessary formatting etc. after the end cell - but what about the seemingly empty cells that would be in the spreadsheet's active range?

This allows you to select all cells in the active range that are considered empty. Now we need to clear all their contents. To do this, go to the Home tab on the ribbon and select Clear All in the Editing group. This action structures the book in a compressed folder with lots of binaries. The exact amount of compression depends on the contents of the book. However, these types of files may take longer to open, close, and save.

But this is just an intermediate step. Redundant formatting within the range should also be removed. Then save the file as the original file type. Note the significant reduction in file size. Finally, save the workbook as the same file type, but use a new filename. This last action can also eliminate additional inefficiencies within the file.

With it, you can create rows and columns of cells to display information in a variety of ways. In addition, the program makes it easy to customize various aspects of the table, such as the size and number of cells. However, you may be blown away if you only want to resize one cell. Although at first this may seem like a simple feature that should be present, it was never included as a feature within the program. To change the height or width of one particular cell in your spreadsheet, you must change the height or width of the entire row or column containing that cell.

Setting a given column width

If you only want to resize one cell without resizing the cells in the corresponding row or column, it will create extreme distortion in the spreadsheet and make things unreadable and unusable. However, if you absolutely must make one cell larger, but don't want to change the size of the row or column it's in, there's one solution that can be useful under certain circumstances: cell merging. Merging cells essentially means merging two or more adjacent cells into one.

This allows you to select a cell and then as many cells as you want in a row or column extending directly from it and merging them into one cell, which then becomes the size of all those cells. So you can artificially resize a cell to make it larger without changing the height or width of the rest of the row or column that contains it. Once cells are merged, the new cell can be selected, used, and formatted just like any other cell in the document.

While merging cells won't help you make one cell smaller, it can be useful if you need to increase the size of an individual cell without affecting the size of the other cells around it. In version 5, a new table tool made it easier to set rows and columns of information. Version 5 additional elements controls and options give you more options to overcome difficult tables.