I'm working on my household budget and I've entered all of my bills for the last two months.
Now that I have my information entered, I can clean up my worksheet a little.
For example, some of the text in column A goes beyond the column marker.
I can easily make the column wider. Just position the cursor over the column line
right in the column heading and a double arrow will appear.
Left-click the mouse and drag the cursor to the right to increase the column size.
Release the mouse button when the column is the desired size.
It's bigger now, but I think it's a little too big.
I can decrease the column size the same way, but this time, I'll just drag the cursor to
the left. There, that looks a lot better.
Some of the names of the months don't quite fit in the cell either and I can increase
the column width on these, too. Now, I can manually adjust the column marker
like I just did for column A, or I can use the Format command to adjust the column width.
Just select the column you'd like to modify, and then click the Format command in the Cells
group on the Home tab. A menu appears with a lot of options.
From this menu, you can change your row height and your column width.
If you click Column Width a dialog box appears that allows you to enter a specific size for
the width. I'm not sure how wide I need it to be, so
this won't work. However, the AutoFit Column Width adjusts
the column just enough so all the text will fit.
Just left-click the menu option to select it.
And now you can see that the column adjusted in the worksheet.
Right now, the height of the rows in the spreadsheet looks OK, but there may be times when you
want to increase or decrease the height of your rows.
This works the same way as the columns. For example, let's say I want to increase
the height of row 1. Afterall, it is my title.
I do want it to stand out! All you have to do is hover your cursor over the row line
you want to move. Once the double-arrow appears, left-click
and drag your mouse. I want to make this row taller, so I'll drag
the row line down. You can drag the line up and down until you
get the size you'd like. And just like the columns, you can format
the rows by clicking the Format command in the Cells group on the Home tab.
From the menu, you can select Row Height to enter a specific cell height or AutoFit Row
Height to adjust the row height to the same size as the text.
You may also find that you need to sometimes insert rows, columns, and cells.
For example, I just realized that I forgot to include my car insurance in my budget.
Instead of adding it to the bottom of the list, I'd like to put it above my car payment.
All I need to do is select row 9 then click the Insert command.
The new row always appears above the selected row.
And now I can type in my text. One word of caution...
make sure that you select the entire row below where you want the new row to appear and not
just the cell. For example, if I want to insert a new row
above Rent and I only select cell A8 instead of row 8, it won't work quite right.
You see, now if I click the Insert command, only a cell will be inserted, instead of a
row. So, I'll just click Undo, select the entire
row, and click Insert.
You can also insert columns easily.
I want to change the Date column to Aug. Due Date, and then insert a column next to
it where I can type "yes" or "no" if it was paid. Each month, I'll change this information.
When you insert a new column into a worksheet, it will appear to the left of the column you
select. Since I want my new column to appear here,
to the right of the Due Date column, I need to select Column C and then click the Insert
command. There you go! Deleting rows and columns is
as easy as adding them. Just select the row or column you'd like to
delete, and click the Delete command on the Home tab.
I do want to keep this row, so I'll click Undo.
Just be careful to select the entire row or column you want to delete.
If you only select a cell and then click Delete, only the cell will disappear.
Excel gives you several different ways to insert cells and rows and you'll learn more
about these as you use Excel. I think I've shown you the simplest way to
add and delete rows and columns, but feel free to explore some of the other option as
well. If you click the down arrow next to the Insert
and Delete commands, you'll see some other menu options.
I'm going to really quickly add a few more rows that will help me organize the budget
into categories.
The best way to learn how to insert and delete
rows, columns, and cells to practice using them.
Have fun!