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

The methods 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, choose Format then Row Height. If you double Excel's default row height, you will obtain an approximation of double line spacing. If you multiple the default by a factor of 1.5, you will obtain approximately 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 a lot of 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, suppose we insert a header row at the top of a worksheet centred across all the columns containing data. If we then increase the font size of this heading, Excel will automatically increase the row height 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.

Microsoft Excel offers us a number of different ways of changing the width of columns and the height of rows. The width of columns is expressed as the number of characters the cell can hold. By default, Excel gives each column a width of just over eight characters. This means, for example, that if you're using a spreadsheet primarily for numerical data, you can enter eight digits in each column using the default width.

If you plan to modify the default width, it makes sense to do so before you start entering data into your worksheet. For example, if you know that you'll be entering fairly short pieces of data in each column, you might want to reduce the default width. To customise the default width, go to the Cells section of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon. Click the Format button and choose Default Width from the drop-down. In the window which appears, you will see Excel's standard column width of approximately 8 characters. Simply input a new entry and click OK.

As long as you haven't changed the width of a column using any other technique, you can change the default width at any time and any cells that have been left at the default width will automatically change to reflect the new setting.

The second method of changing column widths is to use Excel's AutoFit feature. This technique automatically adjusts the width of a column to ensure that the contents of the selected cells are completely visible. To AutoFit a range columns, highlight the cells that you want Excel to take into account or simply highlight the entire column. Next, position the cursor on the right hand edge of the column and, when the cursor changes to a double arrow, double-click.

You can also AutoFit data in a range of columns by selecting a range of data across several columns or highlight several entire columns and then choosing Format then AutoFit Column Width in the Cells group of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon.

When using the AutoFit feature, it's inevitable that you'll end up with columns that have different widths. If you would like a range of columns to have exactly the same width then simply select the range and choose Format then Column Widths and enter a global width.

Excel also allows you to adjust the width of columns interactively. To do this, position the cursor on the right hand edge of the column and, when the cursor changes to a double arrow, click, hold and drag. As you drag, you will see the width of the column displayed both in characters and in pixels. This same technique can be used either to adjust the width of a single column or a range of columns.