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Sometimes, Autofit refuses to work when there are merged cells in your Excel. Here I am listing some possible reasons why autofit may not be working on your Excel: When there are merged cells There could be many reasons for it not working, and in many cases, it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. While Autofit works well in most cases, sometimes, you may find that this feature doesn’t work. For example, if you’re using the shortcut ALT + H + O + I, press the ALT key, then the H key, and so on (in succession). Use the keyboard shortcut with keys in succession.Select the row/column that you want to autofit.
#Automatically adjust table columns to fit text in word how to
Here is how to use these keyboard shortcuts: To Autofill column width: ALT + H + O + I If you’re not a fan of using the mouse and would prefer a keyboard shortcut instead, this method is for you.īelow are the keyboard shortcuts that will autofit the cells: To do that you first need to select the rows that you need to autofit and then select the ‘Autofit Row Height’ option.ĪutoFit Rows and Columns Using a Keyboard Shortcut You can also use the same steps to also autofit row height. The above steps would instantly expand the column to adjust the text in the cells.
Click on the ‘Autofit Column Width’ option. This will show additional options in the drop-down In the Cells group, click on the ‘Format’ option. Suppose you have a dataset as shown below where you want to autofit Column A. You just have to place the cursor at the bottom edge of the selected row and double-click AutoFit Rows and Columns Using Excel RibbonĪnother quick way to autofit cells in Excel is by using the option in the ribbon. While I have shown you the example automatically fitting text to columns (which is more commonly needed), the same can also be done with rows. Note that for this to work, you need to select the entire columns and not the cells in the worksheet. Double-click the left key on your mouse (or trackpad)Īs soon as you do this, it will autofit both the selected columns (as shown below). With both the columns selected, place the cursor at the right edge of the column header. Select all the columns that need to be autofitted, In this case, it would be column A and B. You can use the below steps to autofit column width using the mouse: Suppose you have the dataset as shown below where there are two columns and both have text that needs to autofit. You can also use the double-click method to adjust multiple columns at once. Note that the column width is expanded to adjust the cell which needs the maximum width. You would see that the column width changes automatically to adjust all the cells so that there is no overflowing of text to other cells. Double-click the left key on your mouse (or the trackpad). You would notice that the cursor changes to a double-sided arrow icon. Hover the cursor at the right edge of the column header. Here is how you can autofit column width using the mouse: Suppose you have a dataset as shown below where the text spills to the other column as the column width is less. AutoFit Rows and Columns Using Mouse Double-Click
In most cases, I use the mouse double-click method as I find it the most convenient. There are a couple of ways to Autofit in Excel:Īll these methods work fine and you can choose whichever works best for you.
How to AutoFit in Excel (Adjust Rows and Columns to Fit Text) You can use the ‘AutoFit Row Height’ feature in that case. In those cases, you won’t need to do any row height adjustment.īut sometimes, you may get a dataset from someone or as a download, where row height has already been fixed and needs adjustment. In most cases, you would notice that Excel automatically adjusts the row height when you enter more than one line in the same cell.
Autofit Row Height: This feature automatically adjusts the row height to fit the text in the cell. You can fit text for multiple columns at once (as we will see later in examples) AutoFit Column Width: This feature automatically adjusts the column width to fit the text in the cell. It’s Auto- i.e., it will figure out itself how much it should expand/contract to fit the current cell content When you enter anything in a cell in Excel, you would notice that it spills when the size of the text/data is more than the size of the column.ĪutoFit is a feature in Excel that allows you to quickly adjust the row height or column width to fit the text completely (so that there is no spilling over to other cells).Īlso, AutoFit means that you don’t have to manually specify the column width or row height (or manually drag and adjust the column width). Alternatives to AutoFit Option in Excel. AutoFit not Working (Possible Solutions).
How to AutoFit in Excel (Adjust Rows and Columns to Fit Text).