Microsoft® Office Excel 2003 Inside Out

Controlling the Size of Cells

The primary methods you use to control the size of cells are adjusting the row height or changing the column width. In addition, you can adjust the size of cells by merging several cells into one or by unmerging previously merged cells.

Changing Column Widths

The default column width for Excel is 8.43 characters; however, this does not mean that each cell in your worksheet can display 8.43 characters. Because Excel uses proportionally spaced fonts (such as Arial) as well as fixed-pitch fonts (such as Courier), different characters can take up different amounts of space. A default-width column, for example, can display about eight numerals in most 10-point fixed-pitch fonts.

If the standard column width isn't wide enough ...