How to Autofit Excel Cells? 3 Best Methods
Note: This guide on how to autofit Excel cells is suitable for Excel 2010, Excel 2013, Excel 2016, Excel 2019, and Office 365 users.
In Microsoft Excel, there is a default row height and column width for all cells. If you enter any text that is larger than the cell size, it will spill out. This is considered bad formatting and is unpleasant to work with.
To rectify this, Excel provides a number of options to change column and row size. One of the easiest ways to do this is to let Excel figure out what should be the matching cell size automatically. This is nothing but the Excel Autofit feature.
In this guide, let me show you how to use it easily.
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I’ll cover:
- The Autofit Excel Feature – An Overview.
- How to Autofit in Excel?
- What to do if Excel Autofit is not Working?
- Alternatives to Autofit in Excel
The Autofit Excel Feature – An Overview.
Excel has an inbuilt Autofit feature that automatically resizes the row and column size of cells to accommodate inputs of different sizes. It is designed to change the column width and row height optimally, without user inputs.
The Excel autofit feature modifies the entire column width to hold the largest value in the column. Similarly, it expands the row height of the entire row to hold multi-line texts.
But, keep in mind that there are limits to how much a row or column can expand in size.
A standard Excel column can hold a maximum of 255 characters in width of standard font size and style (without bold and italics). In comparison, an Excel row can hold multiple lines of text up to a row height of 14.315 cms.
How to Autofit in Excel?
There are three ways to use autofit in Excel. You can use the mouse, the Excel ribbon menu, or directly use keyboard shortcuts to save time.
I’ll show you how to do all of this with examples.
How to Autofit Excel Rows and Columns Using a Mouse?
This is probably the most user-friendly way to use the Excel autofit feature. All you have to do is double-click the nearest column or row border.
Let me make it simpler.
To autofit the column size of one column, just hover the mouse over the right border of the column. The double-headed arrow pointer will appear. Now, double-click on the column border to expand it.
To autofit the row size of one row, just hover the mouse pointer over the lower border of that particular row. Now, access the double-headed arrow pointer and double-click on the row border to expand it.
If you want to apply the autofit feature to multiple columns or rows, select all of them first. Now, double click on any of the row or column borders inside the selection. Similarly, if you want to autofit the entire sheet, just select all cells using “Ctrl+A” and follow the same procedure.
Remember that, you can autofit rows, or columns, or both at the same time depending on your needs.
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How to Autofit Excel Columns and Rows Using the Excel Ribbon?
This is another easy way to use autofit in Excel.
To apply the autofit feature using the Excel ribbon follow these steps:
- To autofit column width, select the relevant columns and click on the Autofit Column Width button under the Format drop-down menu. The Format dropw-down menu is located in the Cells group of the Home tab
- To autofit row height, select the relevant rows and click on the Autofit Row Height button under the Format drop-down menu.
Keyboard Shortcuts to Autofit Excel Cells.
This method is similar to the Excel ribbon method, except that here we use the Excel ribbon shortcuts to access them.
As usual, select the rows or columns you want to autofit. To select multiple non-adjacent rows or columns, keep pressing the “Ctrl” key while clicking on each one of them.
Next, hit “Alt+H”. This will select and open the Home tab in the ribbon.
Then Hit “O”. This will select and open the Format menu.
Now, to autofit column width use “I”. That is Alt+H > O > I
To autofit row height use “A”. That is Alt+H > O > A
What to do if Excel Autofit is not Working?
In some rare cases, the Excel autofit feature might not work properly. The usually observed problems are unaligned text or extra space at the end of the text.
This is usually caused by the usage of conflicting similar features like wrap text.
There is no hard and fast rule to fix this. But, there is a reliable method you can follow to troubleshoot it.
Select all cells in the sheet and drag any column border a little bit with your mouse. Now, double click on any one of the rows and column borders to reset the autofit feature in the sheet. This will fix the issues in most cases.
Alternatives to Autofit in Excel
Although the Excel autofit feature is very handy, it is not the solution for all cases, especially when long text strings are involved. In such cases, you can use the wrap text feature to display the text on multiple lines.
Another important alternative to autofit is the Merge feature. To use this feature, select two or more adjacent cells you want to expand and click on the Merge & Centre button in the Alignment Group under the Home tab.
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FAQs
How to make Excel cells expand to fit text automatically?
The best way to make Excel cells expand to fit text automatically is to use the Excel Autofit feature.
What is the Excel autofit column width shortcut?
The Keyboard shortcut for Excel autofit column width is Alt+H > O > I.
Let’s Wrap Up
These are all the different methods to implement Autofit in Excel. If you have any questions about this or any other Excel feature, let us know in the comments. We are always happy to help.
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Adam Lacey
Adam Lacey is an Excel enthusiast and online learning expert. He combines these two passions at Simon Sez IT where he wears a number of different hats. When Adam isn't fretting about site traffic or Pivot Tables, you'll find him on the tennis court or in the kitchen cooking up a storm.