Page 155 - Excel 2013 All-in-One For Dummies

Adjusting Columns and Rows 137 Setting a new standard width
You can use the Default Standard Width command to set all the columns
in a worksheet to a new uniform width (other than the default 8.43 or 8.11 characters). To do so, simply click the Format button in the Cells group on the Home tab of the Ribbon and then choose Default Width from the drop- down menu. Doing this opens the Standard Width dialog box, where you can replace the default value in the Standard Column Width text box with your new width (in characters), and then click OK or press Enter.
Note that when you set a new standard width for the columns of your work- sheet, this new width doesn’t affect any columns whose width you’ve previ- ously adjusted either with AutoFit or in the Column Width dialog box.
Hiding out a column or two
You can use the Hide command to temporarily remove columns of data from the worksheet display. When you hide a column, you’re essentially setting the column width to 0 (and thus making it so narrow that, for all intents and purposes, the sucker’s gone). Hiding columns enables you to remove the display of sensitive or supporting data that needs to be in the spreadsheet but may not be appropriate in printouts that you distribute (keeping in mind that only columns and rows that are displayed in the worksheet get printed).
To hide a column, put the cell pointer in a cell in that column, click the Format button in the Cells group on the Home tab, and then choose Hide & Unhide➪Hide Columns from the drop-down menu (or you can just press Alt+HOUC).
To hide more than one column at a time, select the columns either by drag- ging through their letters on the Column header or by holding down Ctrl as you click them before you choose this command sequence.
Excel lets you know that certain columns are missing from the worksheet by removing their column letters from the Column header so that if, for example, you hide columns D and E in the worksheet, column C is followed by column F on the Column header.
To restore hidden columns to view, select the visible columns on either side of the hidden one(s) — indicated by the missing letter(s) on the column headings — and then click the Format button in the Cells group on the Home tab. Then choose Hide & Unhide➪Unhide Columns from the drop-down menu (or you can just press Alt+HOUL).
Because Excel also automatically selects all the redisplayed columns, you need to deselect the selected columns before you select any more format- ting or editing commands that will affect all their cells. You can do this by
Book II Chapter 2
Formatting Worksheets