How to Make Cells Bigger in Excel

Last Updated: October 24, 2023
puneet-gogia-excel-champs

- Written by Puneet

When you open the workbook, you will always find the cells in the default height and width and you can adjust the size of the cells if required.

Cells are part of rows and columns thus if you make any cell bigger in any row and column, other cells within the same row and column will also get adjusted.

In this tutorial, we have explained to you some very common ways to make the cells bigger.

1. Make Cells Bigger by Adjusting Row Height and Column Width

You can make the cells bigger by increasing the row height and column width and for this, you need to follow the below steps:

  1. First, select the cells that you want to make bigger.
  2. Once selected, go to the “Home” tab, click on the “Format” icon under the cells group and then click on “Row Height” from the drop-down.
    home-tab-format-icon
  3. After that, enter the row height as per your choice and click OK.
    enter-row-height-value
  4. At this moment, the height of the selected cells got increased.
    cells-height-increased
  5. Again, select the cells and go to the “Format” icon, and this time click on “Column Width” from the drop-down.
    choose-column-width
  6. Now, enter the column width as per choice and click OK.
    enter-column-width-value
  7. At this moment, the width of the selected cells got increased which made the size of the selected cells bigger.
    width-of-cells-got-increased

In the above example, we have selected the cells that come under two columns (A & B) and within rows (1 to 13) and entered the row height and column width as 25 which made the cells bigger.

You can increase the row height max to 409 and column width up to 255.

2. Make Cells Bigger using AutoFit Row Height and Column Width

This autofit option is used to adjust the size of the cells based on the values in the cells. When you use the autofit feature it makes the cells bigger or smaller based on the value in the cells.

  1. First, select the cells or the entire column wherein the values in the cells are lengthy and/or overlapping and/or partially hidden.
  2. Once selected, go to the “Home” tab, click on the “Format” icon under the cells group and then click on “AutoFit Row Height” from the drop-down.
    choose-autofit-row-height
  3. Once you click on “AutoFit Row Height” it will increase only the height of those cells wherein data is available in lines and is hidden.
    row-height-increased
  4. Now, select the cells or the column again and go to the “Format” icon under the cells group and this time click on “AutoFit Column Width” from the drop-down.
    choose-autofit-column-width
  5. At this point, all the cells within the column will get bigger up to the size of the lengthiest value that would have in one of the cells from the selected cells in the column.
    increased-cells-width

In the above example when we used AutoFit Row Height, it only made one cell bigger because only that cell had the hidden value and value stored in lines and when we used AutoFit Column Width, it made all the cells bigger by increasing the width of the cells and the width got increased up to the lengthiest value.

3. Make Cells Bigger Using Wrap Text

Wrap text makes the cells bigger by adjusting the values in the cells only increasing the cell’s height.

  1. First, select the cells or the entire column wherein you want to make the cells bigger by using the wrap text feature.
  2. After that, go to the “Home” tab and then click on the “Wrap Text” icon under the “Alignment” icon.
    wraptext-icon
  3. Once you click on “Wrap Text” the height of the cells will get increased and the value in the cells gets adjusted and cells become bigger except the cells that will have values in lines as we have in cell B2.
    wraptext-applied

4. Make Cells Bigger Using Mouse

You can also make the cells bigger by increasing the column width and row height using a mouse by placing the cursor on the column header borders and the row number borders and can expand the width and row using the mouse.

expand-column-width-and-row-height

5. Make All the Cells Bigger at Once in Excel

You can make all the cells of a worksheet bigger even when you don’t have values in those cells.

  1. First, click on the top right corner of the worksheet to select all the cells in one go.
    select-all-cells
  2. After that, click on the divider between columns A and B, and hold the click. And by holding your mouse, increase the column width (This will increase the column width of the columns in the worksheet).
    click-between-columns-divider
  3. Next, click on the divider between rows 1 and 2, and hold the click. And by holding your mouse, increase the row height (This will increase the row height of all the rows in the worksheet).
    click-between-rows-divider
  4. In the end, click anywhere in the worksheet and de-select the cells.
    deselect-the-cells

6. Make Cells Bigger with AutoFit Keyboard Shortcuts

  • To AutoFit Cells Width (Columns): Alt ⇢ H ⇢ O ⇢ I.
  • To AutoFit Row Height (Rows): Alt ⇢ H ⇢ O ⇢ A.
  • To Enter the Row Height Manually: Alt ⇢ H ⇢ O ⇢ H.
  • To Enter the Column Width Manually: Alt ⇢ H ⇢ O ⇢ W.

You can use these keyboard shortcuts with one cell and with all the cells of a worksheet.

7. Increase Font Size to Make Cells Bigger

If you instantly want to increase the size of the cells, you can simply increase the font size of all the cells. In Excel, the default font is Calibri with size 11. And when you increase the size of the font, it makes all the cells bigger according to the font size.

  • Select All the Cells.
  • Increase the Font Size.
increase-font-size

8. Increase Zoom to Make Cells Bigger

If you just want to have cells bigger for a better view, you can increase the zoom level of the worksheet. Just use the zoom scroll from the bottom right of the Excel window.

change-zoom-level

This will only make the cells of the current worksheet bigger.