Google Sheets has become a very useful tool for data analysis and reporting. The problem is that rows don’t always look as you expect.
Although the default behavior of the software is to change the row height to adapt to a larger font or text wrapped on two or more lines, there are some situations where you need to take control and set your own. Being because you want to adapt to bigger/longer text or only for visual design, keep reading and I’ll show you how to manage row height in different ways.
Table of Contents
- The quick solution: Auto-fit row height with a double click
- Adjusting a row height with a mouse click and drag
- How to resize to a specific height in pixels
- Changing row height on multiple rows at once
- Changing row height on Google Sheets from an Android device
- FAQ
The quick solution: Auto-fit row height with a double click
Let’s open our sample file.
We have Row number 2 that is too tall for its content, and we want to make it as small as we can, but without hiding its content.
This can be done in a few easy steps:
- Place the mouse cursor on the line between the row you want to resize and the one below.
- The mouse cursor should become a double-headed arrow or an upward-pointing arrow, depending on your operating system/configuration.
- Double click on it with your left mouse button.
- Once you double-click, the row height should auto-resize.
If you have content with dissimilar heights on your row, maybe because you have different types of cell content on them, the height will be adapted in order to show the content of the individual cells.
In our example, the taller cell is the B2, so the auto-fit will resize to that one.
Adjusting a row height with a mouse click and drag
If you don’t want an auto-fit (maybe you want to increase row height as you like), there’s a quick way to simply click and drag the row to the desired height.
Let’s get back to our example file and try to make the row taller than it needs to be.
- Place the mouse cursor on the line between the row you want to resize and the one below.
- The mouse cursor should become a double-headed arrow or an upward-pointing arrow, depending on your operating system/configuration.
- Click and keep pressing your left button, and drag the line. While you drag it, a blue line will move with the mouse to help you better visualize the movement.
- When you find the right row size, you can release the mouse button.
This method is easy and gives you the ability to quickly resize the row as you want.
The only downside of this method is that you don’t have full control over the exact height, so if you’re doing this on a row, and then on another, they will probably not have a uniform row height with this method.
Let’s see another method, this time a little longer, but more accurate.
This article is part of our productivity tips for Google Sheets series. You can find them all on our Tips and tricks for Google Sheets page.
How to resize to a specific height in pixels
The methods above are quick and the best way for probably 99% of the situations.
There are, however, some cases where you want to have full control, and you want to set the row height to a specific value. Maybe you have other sheets and want to be consistent, or you want to resize a couple of cells in different rows.
Once more, let’s open our example and see how to set a specific height:
- This time we’ll use the grey area of the row header cells, not the line between two of them.
- Place your mouse over the line number and right-click on it.
- The row will be selected, and a new right-click menu will open.
- Select the “Resize row” option.
- In the Specify row height option, you will see the current height in pixels, and a message reporting the default height (21 pixel).
- Input your desired value.
- Click on OK to confirm.
In the Resize row window, you’ll find the “Fit to data” option. This has the same effect as the double-click method we discussed earlier, but you have to go through the menu, so it’s the same result but a bit slower to execute.
Changing row height on multiple rows at once
We just reviewed some ways to resize a single row, but what if you have a range of cells formatted in a similar way and you want to get the row height consistent between them?
You can use all the methods used to resize a single row, on multiple rows.
- Select the first row by clicking on the row header (the grey area that contains the row number).
- Press the <Shift> key on your keyboard.
- While keeping <Shift> pressed, click on the row header of the last row of the range.
- Double click, click and drag, or right-click to resize all the rows.
If you double-click, every row will be resized based on the cell sizes of that row. If you use the click and drag or the Resize row menu option, all rows will be resized to the same height.
Changing row height on Google Sheets from an Android device
Most of the spreadsheets processing is normally done on a desktop or laptop computer. However, with the extreme portability and diffusion of portable devices such as smartphones or tablets, maybe you end up having to work on Google Sheets from an android device.
Some operations may be difficult, make you just lose patience and leave them to when you’ll be at your computer. Resizing a row is not one of them.
It’s easy and quick, so let’s see how to change row height in the Google Sheets app.
- Select the row by tapping on the row header (the section with the row number).
- Now on the bottom-right corner of the row header, you’ll see a circle with a double-pointed arrow, represented by two triangles. That’s the row resize icon.
- To auto-resize the row, double-tap on the row resize icon, and you’ll get the same effect as the double-click method on the desktop version.
- To manually resize the row, you have to just drag and drop the row resize icon.
FAQ
how to lock the row height in google sheets?
Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to lock row height from changing automatically in Google Sheets.
What’s the default row height in Google Sheets?
The default height of a row in Google Sheets is 21 pixels.
How to resize a column?
A column can be resized the same way as resizing a row, by double-clicking on the separator or with a click and drag on the separator.
In google sheets how do I tell what my row height is?
Select the row you want to know the height of, then right-click on the row header, and select “Resize row”. The current height will be in the “Specify row height” textbox.
Can I resize single cells?
No, you can’t resize a single cell as the spreadsheet structure is pretty rigid.
The only way to get a cell taller than another in the same row is by using the merge feature. We have an article about how to merge cells.