Excel’s grid-like appearance can seem static at times without the possibility of creating customized interfaces to match the needs of the data stored in a worksheet.

Although this is true to some extent, Microsoft has built into Excel the ability to instantly customize column widths and row heights to match the size of the data in the cells.

In this tutorial, we will explore the alignment and text direction options for text within a text container in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac. Explore the text layout options available in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac. Categories: officemac, powerpoint2011, text, tutorials.

Learn how to use Excel’s AutoFit feature to automatically change the size of columns and rows to the size of the data in a worksheet.

Before You Change Column Widths and Row Heights in Excel

There are limits to how big and small you can make columns and rows in Excel. Column widths and row heights with a value of zero are hidden in an Excel worksheet. This is the equivalent to using the hide column or hide row feature.

Columns can have a maximum width of 255. This number represents the maximum number of characters a column can hold at the standard font size.

Changing the font, the font size, and adding other characteristics to the font such as italics and bolding greatly reduce the maximum number of characters a column can hold. The default size of an Excel column is 8.43, which correlates to 64 pixels.

Rows can have a maximum height of 409. This number represents the how many 1/72nds of an inch the row can hold. The default size of an Excel row is 15, which correlates to 20 pixels or about 1/5th of an inch.

Using Excel’s AutoFit Feature

Suppose in your Excel worksheet you have text in the A1 cell that extends beyond the 8.43 (64 pixels) default column width. Notice that although the column’s width cannot contain the length of the text, Excel allows the text to spill over into adjacent columns.

Select Column A, click on the Home tab on the Ribbon, and locate a section of the Ribbon almost all the way to the right labeled Cells.

Click on the button titled Format and locate a section of the menu labeled Cell Size. Notice that there are three options for changing the width of a column.

Column Width – This option lets you manually change the width of a column by typing in a number. This option isn’t useful because you can more easily accomplish the same thing by simply dragging the column to your desired size.

AutoFit Column Width – This is the option we want. This option will change the size of the column to a new size depending on the length of the contents of the cell in the column that takes up the most space.

Default Width – This option doesn’t actually change the width of any columns; it simply changes the default width of the columns for a particular worksheet.

On the Format button’s menu, select AutoFit Column Width and notice that the width of Column A has changed to contain the length of the text in the A1 cell.

Note that you can also autofit a column by simply selecting the column or columns and then double-clicking on the right-hand boundary of any selected column.

If you want to reset all column widths back to the default width, just select Format – Default Width and type in 8.43. You can also use a keyboard shortcut to autofit columns in Excel.

Just press ALT + H and then press O and then I. You can let go ALT and H once you have pressed them. So the full key combination is ALT + H + O + I.

Unlike column widths, Excel automatically adjusts the height of a row to accommodate the height of the text that takes up the most vertical space in each row.

Therefore, the AutoFit Row Height feature found on the Format button is not as useful as the AutoFit Column Width feature.

When pasting data into an Excel worksheet, there are times when the row heights do not adjust automatically. When this happens, text will be cut off rather than spill over into another row either above or below.

To fix this, select the row with the cut-off text and click on Format > AutoFit Row Height. This will force Excel to change the height of the row to accommodate the unusually tall text.

For rows, you can use a very similar keyboard shortcut of ALT + H + O + A to autofit row heights.

Using Excel’s AutoFit feature you can automatically change the width of columns and the height of rows in a worksheet to accommodate different sized text without having to manually change the width and height values.

A real time saver, the AutoFit feature can also make data in your worksheet easier to access and read. Enjoy!

When you are typing in some text into your text box, you might have seen that PowerPoint automatically reduces the size of your text when you typein too much text, or the text container itself increases in size when you type in a little extra text than what can fit. Does this automatichand-holding by PowerPoint interrupting your work? Well, you really don't have to worry because you can control this default behavior of PowerPoint.

There are two ways to solve this issue, and the way you choose depends upon how much control you want:

1. Control Autofit Options Globally: Works on the computer where you make this change.
2. Control Autofit Options for a particular Text Box or Placeholder: Works only on the particulartext box or placeholder you select. If you want to applythis to a particular text placeholder, then don't make these changes for every individual text placeholder. Not only will working with individualtext placeholders be monotonous, but also you will lose the consistent look of successive slides. Therefore, make these changes for text placeholderswithin the Slide Master.

Control Text Autofit Options Globally

To control the Text Autofit options globally in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac, follow these steps:

1. Select the PowerPointPreferences.. menu option, as shown in Figure 1.
2. 
   Figure 1: Preferences option selected within PowerPoint menu
2. This opens the PowerPoint Preferences dialog box that you can see in Figure 2. Select theAutoCorrect option (highlighted in red within Figure 2) which includes two tabs. Amongthese tabs, select the AutoFormat As You Type tab (highlighted in blue withinFigure 2).
3. 
   Figure 2: AutoFormat As You Type tab selected within PowerPoint Preferences dialog box
3. Locate the Apply As You Type section (highlighted in green within Figure 2), whereyou'll find two AutoFit options. You may find the check-boxes associated with these options checked or unchecked, although we believe they are allchecked by default. Check or un-check these check-boxes as per the requirement:

Automatic Bulleted and Numbered Lists

4. Automatically creates bulleted or numbered list as the text is typed. This option works mainly with text boxes rather than textplaceholders because the latter almost always already include bullets. In the text boxes, you can:
5. Type '1.', that is the number 1 followed by a period, and then start typing. The moment you hit Returnkey to create a new line, PowerPoint automatically creates a numbered list.
6. Type '- ', that is a hyphen followed by a space, and then start typing. The moment you hit Returnkey to create a new line, PowerPoint automatically creates a bulleted list.

AutoFit body text to placeholder

7. Automatically fits the body text within a text placeholder. If there's more text, PowerPoint automatically reduces the font size of the textto make space for the new text.
4. Note that the last option mentioned above (3-b) reduces the font size of the text rather than increasing thesize of the text placeholder. If you want that sort of control, you should explore the options explained in the next section. For now, make yourchoices as required by selecting or deselecting the check-boxes. Click the OK button to get back to thePowerPoint interface.

Control Text Autofit Options for a particular Text Box or Placeholder

Follow these steps to control the Text Autofit options for a particular text box or a placeholder (or even ashape that contains text):

1. Select the particular text box or placeholderby clicking its edge. Note that the selected placeholder, text box, or shape is surrounded by a solid line with selection handles. Now, right-click(or Ctrl+click) to get a contextual menu you that see in Figure 3. Select the Format Text optionas shown in Figure 3.
2. 
   Figure 3: Format Text option selected
2. This will open the Format Text dialog box as shown in Figure 4. Make sure that the Text Boxoption within the sidebar of this dialog box is selected (refer to Figure 4 again).
3. 
   Figure 4: Text Box panel selected within Format Text dialog box
4. Within the Autofit section you'll find three radio buttons (shown highlighted in red withinFigure 4) as explained below:

Do not autofit

5. Does not fit the text automatically within the selected text box or placeholder. If you don't want PowerPoint to automatically re-flow yourtext or increase the size of the text container, then choose this option to have complete control over the location and size of your text boxes. Also, you willhave complete control over the font size of the text.

Resize text to fit shape

6. Fits all the text by reducing the text's font size to keep the text fitted within the text box or placeholder. If you have too much text,you might end up with teeny-weeny text.

Resize shape to fit text

7. Retains the text size but increases the size of the container so that the extra text can fit itself within the text box or the placeholder.This also works on shapes but be very careful when using this option, just in case you use it with shapes, be aware that even if you choose theLock Aspect Ratio option in the Size tab of the Format Shape dialog box, the shape will onlyresize itself vertically rather than both vertically and horizontally!
3. Select any one of them as required. After making selection click the OK button to get back to your slide.