How to Make Cells Bigger in Excel

Often, you will need to increase the size of cells in your Excel dataset beyond the default dimensions to fit more content or improve the overall dataset’s layout and appearance.

In this tutorial, I will show you several ways to make cells bigger in Excel.

Table of Contents

Method #1: Make Cells Bigger by Increasing Width/Height

Suppose you have content in cells spilling out to adjacent cells, as in the example below, and want to enlarge the cells to fit the content.

Data set with cells spilling out to adjacent cells

You can use the mouse or ‘Column Width’ and ‘Row Height’ dialog boxes to increase the dimensions of the cells and make them bigger.

Use the Mouse to Enlarge Cells

To widen column A using the mouse, apply the steps below:

Place the cursor on the right border of the column header A and notice the cursor change to a black double-headed arrow:

Press and hold down the left mouse button and drag to the right to the desired width.

Drag the cursor to increase column width

To increase the height of the rows using the mouse, use the steps below:

Click the header of row 1, hold down the left mouse button, and drag down to the header of row 7.

Alternatively, click the header of row 1, press and hold down the Shift key, and click the header of row 7.

Place the cursor on the bottom boundary of any of the selected row headers and notice the cursor change to a black double-headed arrow:

Press and hold down the left mouse button and drag down to the desired row height.

A downside to enlarging cells manually using the mouse is that it may be challenging to increase the cell sizes precisely.

Use the ‘Row Height’ and ‘Column Width’ dialog boxes to increase the cell sizes precisely, as explained in the section below.

Use Dialog Boxes to Enlarge Cells

You can widen column A using the ‘Column Width’ dialog box using the steps below:

Right-click on the column header A and select ‘Column Width’ on the shortcut menu.

Right click and then click on column width

Enter the desired width in the ‘Column width’ box on the ‘Column Width’ dialog box, and click OK.

The above step increases the column width accordingly:

column width has been increased for the cells

To increase the height of the rows, use the steps below:

Click the header of row 1, press and hold down the left mouse button, and drag down to the header of row 7.

Alternatively, click the header of row 1, press and hold down the Shift key, and click the header of row 7.

Right-click the selection and select ‘Row Height’ on the shortcut menu.

Enter the desired height in the ‘Row height’ field and click OK.

The above step increases the height of the rows accordingly:

Method #2: Use the AutoFit Feature to Enlarge Cells

You can use the AutoFit feature in Excel to automatically adjust a column’s width or a row’s height to fit the contents within the cells.

This adjustment has the effect of making cells bigger if their content is larger than the size of the cells.

You can apply the AutoFit feature using the options on the Ribbon or double-clicking the row header and column header boundaries.

The options on the Ribbon can be accessed using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts.

Suppose you have content in cells spilling out to adjacent cells as in the example below and want to enlarge the cells to fit the content using the AutoFit feature.

You can enlarge the cells using the AutoFit options on the Ribbon or the double-click technique.

Use AutoFit Options on the Ribbon to Enlarge Cells

Here’s how to do it:

Select the dataset.

Click the Home tab, open the Format drop-down menu on the Cells group, and select ‘AutoFit Row Height’ or ‘AutoFit Column Width.’

select ‘AutoFit Row Height’ or ‘AutoFit Column Width.’

If you prefer using keyboard shortcuts, you can access the ‘AutoFit Row Height’ option on the drop-down menu by pressing ALT, H, O, A (Press the ALT key and release it, press the H key and release it, press the O key and release it, and then press the A key). To access the ‘AutoFit Column Width’ option, press ALT, H, O, I.

Use the Double-Click Technique to Enlarge Cells

Here’s how to do it:

Place the cursor on the right border of the column header A and notice the cursor change to a black double-headed arrow:

Double-click the border.

The column width expands to accommodate the widest content in the cells so all the content in the cells fits. Note that if the cell contents are smaller than the size of the cells, the column width will contract rather than expand.

To AutoFit the rows, select the row headers and double-click the boundary of any of the headers.

Method #3: Use the Word Wrap Feature to Enlarge Cells

You can use the Word Wrap feature to make cells bigger in Excel. Word Wrap allows the display of text on multiple lines within a single cell, ensuring all text is visible.

Suppose you have text in cell A1 spilling out to adjacent cells, as seen below.

You can use the steps below to display the content in multiple lines in the cell:

Select cell A1.
Open the Home tab and click the Wrap Text button on the Alignment group.

Alternatively, press ALT, H, and W in sequence if you prefer keyboard shortcuts.

The text in the cell automatically wraps to fit within the cell’s width, breaking into multiple lines as needed.

The row height of the cell automatically adjusts to accommodate additional lines of text, ensuring all content is visible.

Method #4: Use Merge & Center, Merge Across, or Merge Cells to Enlarge Cells in Excel

To combine two or more adjacent cells into a larger cell, use the ‘Merge & Center,’ ‘Merge Across,’ or ‘Merge Cells’ options from the ‘Merge’ drop-down list in the ‘Alignment’ group on the Home tab.

The ‘Merge & Center’ option merges the selected cells into one and centers the content.

The ‘Merge Across’ option merges cells in each row of the selected dataset without changing the alignment of the contents.

The ‘Merge Cells’ option merges the selected cells without centering the content.

Note: Merging cells can lead to issues like data loss and make sorting and filtering challenging. It’s best practice to restrict cell merging to creating headings that span multiple rows or columns.

Suppose you have the dataset below with the heading in cell A1 and want the heading to be centered across columns A, B, and C.

Here’s how you can do it:

Select cells A1, B1, and C1.

Click the Home tab, open the ‘Merge’ drop-down list on the Alignment group, and select ‘Merge & Center.’

The above step merges cells A1, B1, and C1, and centers the heading, as shown below.

Also read: How to Find Merged Cells in Excel?

Method #5: Create a Workbook Template with Bigger Cell Sizes

You can create a workbook template with your preferred bigger cell sizes.

The default worksheets in the workbooks you create based on the template will have cells with dimensions you defined in the file template.

Here’s how to do it:

Open a new workbook.
Select the entire worksheet by clicking on the small triangle in the upper-left corner of the worksheet (above row 1 and to the left of column A), or press Ctrl + A to select all cells.
Increase the column widths and row heights as explained in Method #1.

Note: You can also set your preferred page layout, font style, size, and cell formatting, or add headers and footers.

Click the File button and ‘Save As’ on the Backstage window.

Navigate to the folder where you want to store the template file.
On the ‘Save As’ feature, open the ‘Save as type’ drop-down list and select ‘Excel Template (*.xltx).

On the ‘Save As’ feature, enter a descriptive name in the ‘File name’ box such as ‘My Workbook Template,’ click ‘Save,’ and close the template.

To use the file template, follow the steps below:

Open Excel.
Click ‘New’ on the left side of the Backstage window and ‘Personal’ on the right and select your file template from the list.

Note: When you create a new workbook from the file template, you can duplicate the default worksheet to add new worksheets with the same row heights and column widths as the template.

Method #6: Techniques to Make Cells Appear Bigger

In the previous sections, I showed you ways to make cells bigger by increasing their dimensions.

In this section, I will show you techniques to make cells appear bigger without changing their sizes.

Use the Center Across Selection Option

The ‘Center Across Selection’ option allows you to center text across a selected range of cells without merging them.

It is a useful alternative to the ‘Merge & Center’ option, especially when you want to keep the individual cells separate but still display the text centered across them.

Suppose you have the dataset below with the heading in cell A1 and want the heading to be centered across columns A, B, and C.

Here’s how you do it:

Select cells A1, B1, and C1.

Right-click the selection and select ‘Format Cells’ on the shortcut menu to open the ‘Format Cells’ dialog box.

Alternatively, press CTRL + 1.

On the ‘Format Cells’ dialog box, click the ‘Alignment’ tab, open the ‘Horizontal’ drop-down menu, select ‘Center Across Selection’, and click OK.

The above step centers the heading across columns A, B, and C as shown below:

Cells A1, B1, and C1 appear to have merged, but they have not. The cells can still be selected individually, for instance, cell C1, as shown below:

Increase the Font Size

Sometimes, you may have trouble reading a dataset because the font size is too small.

In this case, you can increase the font size to make the dataset readable using the steps below:

Select the dataset.
Click the Home tab, open the ‘Font Size’ drop-down list on the Font group, and select a bigger font size.

Also read: How to Set the Default Font in Excel (Windows and Mac)

Use the Zoom Feature

You can use the Zoom feature in Excel to increase the magnification level of the current worksheet and make cells and their content appear larger on the screen.

The magnification helps you to focus on a particular section of the worksheet in greater detail.

You can apply the Zoom feature using the Zoom slider, Zoom dialog box, Zoom to Selection button, and a combination of CTRL and scroll wheel.

Use the Zoom Slider

The Zoom Slider is at the Excel window’s bottom right corner.

Drag the slider to the right to make the content larger. You can also click the plus (+) button on the right side of the slider to adjust the zoom incrementally by 10%.