Why Can’t My Row Height Automatically Adjust?!
What Is AutoFit Column Width & AutoFit Row Height?
This is a feature that I tend to use a lot when formatting my spreadsheets. Essentially what you can do is double-click between two rows or two columns in the row or column heading area (as shown below) and the column to the left or the row above your cursor will resize itself.
If there is data in any of the cells in your target column/row, the AutoFit feature will extend so that every cell is showing the entirety of its content. If the entire row is empty then AutoFit will adjust to your default row height (NOTE: using AutoFit on an empty column will not adjust that column back to its default width). Pretty cool, huh?
The Problem
Are you a power user of the double-click column/row auto-adjust feature? Well I am and there have been instances where I double-click to AutoFit a row height and Excel does nothing! After years of being bugged with this, I finally had enough and decided to figure out what was causing me this grief.
Through testing, I discovered that this only occurred when I was trying to readjust merged cells that also had the text wrapping format activated. Apparently the AutoFit functionality does not work when these two conditions both occur, so you are forced to manually adjust the height until all your characters are showing.
***Side Note – If you have been following my posts, you probably know that I detest the use of merging cells unless absolutely necessary. Well you’ve caught me! I do merge cells in Excel but it is usually in cases where I am putting together a survey or need some sort of long text field added to my spreadsheet. I almost never merge cells when working on an analysis where someone may need to copy/paste-values my data.
What’s The Solution?
So after consulting with my best friend Google, I found a macro that was written by Jim Rech on one of the Excel forums. I could not find very much information on who Jim is but I sure do like his solution! I have added a few Error Handlers to Jim’s original code to make it a little more error-proof. So add this subroutine to your Personal Macro Collection and enjoy!
Sub AutoFitMergedCellRowHeight()
'PURPOSE: Provides a workaround to Autofitting a row that has merged cells in it
'SOURCE: www.TheSpreadsheetGuru.com
'CREATED BY: Jim Rech
'MODIFIED BY: Chris Macro
Dim CurrentRowHeight As Single, MergedCellRgWidth As Single
Dim ActiveCellWidth As Single, PossNewRowHeight As Single
Dim CurrCell As Range
'Prevent misuse of procedure
On Error GoTo SelectCell
If Selection.Rows.Count > 1 Then
MsgBox "Please select only the merged cell you want to adjust"
Exit Sub
End If
On Error GoTo 0
'Readjust Row Height
If ActiveCell.MergeCells Then
With ActiveCell.MergeArea
If .Rows.Count = 1 And .WrapText = True Then
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
CurrentRowHeight = .RowHeight
ActiveCellWidth = ActiveCell.ColumnWidth
For Each CurrCell In Selection
MergedCellRgWidth = CurrCell.ColumnWidth + MergedCellRgWidth
Next
.MergeCells = False
.Cells(1).ColumnWidth = MergedCellRgWidth
.EntireRow.AutoFit
PossNewRowHeight = .RowHeight
.Cells(1).ColumnWidth = ActiveCellWidth
.MergeCells = True
.RowHeight = IIf(CurrentRowHeight > PossNewRowHeight, _
CurrentRowHeight, PossNewRowHeight)
End If
End With
End If
Exit Sub
SelectCell:
MsgBox "Make sure a cell is selected before running."
Exit Sub
End SubLearn my best Excel chart design hacks. These will turn your ugly charts into professionally crafted graphics, leaving your boss speechless!!!
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Chris Newman
Chris is a finance professional and Excel MVP recognized by Microsoft since 2016. With his expertise, he founded TheSpreadsheetGuru blog to help fellow Excel users, where he shares his vast creative solutions & expertise. In addition, he has developed over 7 widely-used Excel Add-ins that have been embraced by individuals and companies worldwide.