Chapter 3. Essential Worksheet Operations

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding Excel worksheet essentials

Controlling your views

Manipulating the rows and columns

This chapter covers some basic information regarding workbooks, worksheets, and windows. You discover tips and techniques to help you take control of your worksheets. The result? You'll be a more efficient Excel user.

3.1. Learning the Fundamentals of Excel Worksheets

In Excel, each file is called a workbook, and each workbook can contain one or more worksheets. You may find it helpful to think of an Excel workbook as a notebook and worksheets as pages in the notebook. As with a notebook, you can view a particular sheet, add new sheets, remove sheets, and copy sheets.

The following sections describe the operations that you can perform with worksheets.

3.1.1. Working with Excel windows

Each Excel workbook file is displayed in a window. A workbook can hold any number of sheets, and these sheets can be either worksheets (sheets consisting of rows and columns) or chart sheets (sheets that hold a single chart). A worksheet is what people usually think of when they think of a spreadsheet. You can open as many Excel workbooks as necessary at the same time.

Figure 3.1 shows Excel with four workbooks open, each in a separate window. One of the windows is minimized and appears near the lower-left corner of the screen. (When a workbook is minimized, only its title bar is visible.) Worksheet windows can overlap, and the title bar of one window is a different color. That's the window that contains the active workbook.

The workbook windows that Excel uses work much like the windows in any other Windows program. Each window has three buttons at the right side of its title bar. From left to right, they are Minimize, Maximize (or Restore), and Close. When a workbook window is maximized, the three buttons appear directly below the Excel title bar.

Workbook windows can be in one of the following states:

• Maximized: Fills the entire Excel workspace. A maximized window doesn't have a title bar, and the workbook's name appears in the title bar for Excel. To maximize a window, click its Maximize button.

• Minimized: Appears as a small window with only a title bar. To minimize a window, click its Minimize button.

• Restored: A nonmaximized size. To restore a maximized or minimized window, click its Restore button.

If you work with more than one workbook simultaneously (which is quite common), you need to know how to move, resize, and switch among the workbook windows.

3.1.1.1. Moving and resizing windows

To move a window, make sure that it's not maximized. Then click and drag its title bar with your mouse.

To resize a window, click and drag any of its borders until it's the size that you want it to be. When you position the mouse pointer on a window's border, the mouse pointer changes to a double-sided arrow, which lets you know that you can now click and drag to resize the window. To resize a window horizontally and vertically at the same time, click and drag any of its corners.

If you want all your workbook windows to be visible (that is, not obscured by another window), you can move and resize the windows manually, or you can let Excel do it for you. Choosing View Window Arrange All displays the Arrange Windows dialog box, shown in Figure 3.2. This dialog box has four window-arrangement options. Just select the one that you want and click OK. Windows that are minimized aren't affected by this command.

3.1.1.2. Switching among windows

At any given time, one (and only one) workbook window is the active window. The active window accepts your input and is the window on which your commands work. The active window's title bar is a different color, and the window appears at the top of the stack of windows. To work in a different window, you need to make that window active. You can make a different window the active workbook in several ways:

• Click another window, if it's visible. The window you click moves to the top and becomes the active window. This method isn't possible if the current window is maximized.

• Press Ctrl+Tab (or Ctrl+F6) to cycle through all open windows until the window that you want to work with appears on top as the active window. Pressing Shift+Ctrl+Tab (or Shift+Ctrl+F6) cycles through the windows in the opposite direction.

• Choose View Window Switch Windows and select the window that you want from the drop-down list (the active window has a check mark next to it). This menu can display as many as nine windows. If you have more than nine workbook windows open, choose More Windows (which appears below the nine window names).

• Click the icon for the window in the Windows taskbar. This technique is available only if the Show All Windows in the Taskbar option is turned on. You can control this setting from the Advanced tab of the Excel Options dialog box (in the Display section).

Most people prefer to do most of their work with maximized workbook windows, which enables you to see more cells and eliminates the distraction of other workbook windows getting in the way. At times, however, viewing multiple windows is preferred. For example, displaying two windows is more efficient if you need to compare information in two workbooks or if you need to copy data from one workbook to another.

When you maximize one window, all the other windows are maximized, too (even though you don't see them). Therefore, if the active window is maximized and you activate a different window, the new active window is also maximized.

You also can display a single workbook in more than one window. For example, if you have a workbook with two worksheets, you may want to display each worksheet in a separate window to compare the two sheets. All the window-manipulation procedures described previously still apply. Choose View Window New Window to open an additional window in the active workbook.

3.1.1.3. Closing windows

If you have multiple windows open, you may want to close those windows that you no longer need. Excel offers several ways to close the active window:

• Choose File Close.

• Click the Close button (the X icon) on the workbook window's title bar. If the workbook window is maximized, its title bar is not visible, so its Close button appears directly below the Excel Close button.

• Press Ctrl+W.

When you close a workbook window, Excel checks whether you made any changes since the last time you saved the file. If you have made changes, Excel prompts you to save the file before it closes the window. If not, the window closes without a prompt from Excel.

3.1.2. Activating a worksheet

At any given time, one workbook is the active workbook, and one sheet is the active sheet in the active workbook. To activate a different sheet, just click its sheet tab, located at the bottom of the workbook window. You also can use the following shortcut keys to activate a different sheet:

• Ctrl+PgUp: Activates the previous sheet, if one exists

• Ctrl+PgDn: Activates the next sheet, if one exists

If your workbook has many sheets, all its tabs may not be visible. Use the tab scrolling controls (see Figure 3.3) to scroll the sheet tabs. The sheet tabs share space with the worksheet's horizontal scroll bar. You also can drag the tab split control to display more or fewer tabs. Dragging the tab split control simultaneously changes the number of tabs and the size of the horizontal scroll bar.

When you right-click any of the tab scrolling controls, Excel displays a list of all sheets in the workbook. You can quickly activate a sheet by selecting it from the list.

3.1.3. Adding a new worksheet to your workbook

Worksheets can be an excellent organizational tool. Instead of placing everything on a single worksheet, you can use additional worksheets in a workbook to separate various workbook elements logically. For example, if you have several products whose sales you track individually, you may want to assign each product to its own worksheet and then use another worksheet to consolidate your results.

The following are three ways to add a new worksheet to a workbook:

• Click the Insert Worksheet control, which is located to the right of the last sheet tab. This method inserts the new sheet after the last sheet in the workbook.

• Press Shift+F11. This method inserts the new sheet before the active sheet.

• Right-click a sheet tab, choose Insert from the shortcut menu, and click the General tab of the Insert dialog box that appears. Then select the Worksheet icon and click OK. This method inserts the new sheet before the active sheet.

3.1.4. Deleting a worksheet you no longer need

If you no longer need a worksheet, or if you want to get rid of an empty worksheet in a workbook, you can delete it in either of two ways:

• Right-click its sheet tab and choose Delete from the shortcut menu.

• Activate the unwanted worksheet and choose Home Cells Delete Delete Sheet. If the worksheet contains any data, Excel asks you to confirm that you want to delete the sheet. If you've never used the worksheet, Excel deletes it immediately without asking for confirmation.

You can delete multiple sheets with a single command by selecting the sheets that you want to delete. To select multiple sheets, press Ctrl while you click the sheet tabs that you want to delete. To select a group of contiguous sheets, click the first sheet tab, press Shift, and then click the last sheet tab. Then use either method to delete the selected sheets.

When you delete a worksheet, it's gone for good. Deleting a worksheet is one of the few operations in Excel that can't be undone.

3.1.5. Changing the name of a worksheet

The default names that Excel uses for worksheets — Sheet1, Sheet2, and so on — aren't very descriptive. If you don't change the worksheet names, remembering where to find things in multiple-sheet workbooks can be a bit difficult. That's why providing more meaningful names for your worksheets is often a good idea.

Changing the Default Number of Sheets in Your Workbooks By default, Excel automatically creates three worksheets in each new workbook. You can change this default behavior. For example, I prefer to start each new workbook with a single worksheet. After all, you can easily add new sheets if and when they're needed. To change the default number of worksheets: Choose File Excel Options to display the Excel Options window. Click the General tab. Change the value for the Include This Many Sheets setting and then click OK. Making this change affects all new workbooks but has no effect on existing workbooks.

To change a sheet's name, double-click the sheet tab. Excel highlights the name on the sheet tab so that you can edit the name or replace it with a new name.

Sheet names can be up to 31 characters, and spaces are allowed. However, you can't use the following characters in sheet names:

: colon

/ slash

backslash

[ ] square brackets

< > angle brackets

. period

? question mark

' apostrophe

* asterisk

Keep in mind that a longer worksheet name results in a wider tab, which takes up more space onscreen. Therefore, if you use lengthy sheet names, you won't be able to see very many sheet tabs without scrolling the tab list.

3.1.6. Changing a sheet tab color

Excel allows you to change the color of your worksheet tabs. For example, you may prefer to color-code the sheet tabs to make identifying the worksheet's contents easier.

To change the color of a sheet tab, right-click the tab and choose Tab Color from the shortcut menu. Then select the color from the color selector box.

3.1.7. Rearranging your worksheets

You may want to rearrange the order of worksheets in a workbook. If you have a separate worksheet for each sales region, for example, arranging the worksheets in alphabetical order may be helpful. You may want to move a worksheet from one workbook to another. (To move a worksheet to a different workbook, both workbooks must be open.) You can also create copies of worksheets.

You can move or copy a worksheet in the following ways:

• Right-click the sheet tab and choose Move or Copy to display the Move or Copy dialog box (see Figure 3.4). Use this dialog box to specify the operation and the location for the sheet.

  Figure 3.4. Use the Move or Copy dialog box to move or copy worksheets in the same or another workbook.

  

• To move a worksheet, click the worksheet tab and drag it to its desired location (either in the same workbook or in a different workbook). When you drag, the mouse pointer changes to a small sheet, and a small arrow guides you.

• To copy a worksheet, click the worksheet tab, and press Ctrl while dragging the tab to its desired location (either in the same workbook or in a different workbook). When you drag, the mouse pointer changes to a small sheet with a plus sign on it.

You can move or copy multiple sheets simultaneously. First select the sheets by clicking their sheet tabs while holding down the Ctrl key. Then you can move or copy the set of sheets by using the preceding methods.

If you move or copy a worksheet to a workbook that already has a sheet with the same name, Excel changes the name to make it unique. For example, Sheet1 becomes Sheet1 (2). You probably want to rename the copied sheet to give it a more meaningful. See "Changing the name of a worksheet," earlier in this chapter.

3.1.8. Hiding and unhiding a worksheet

In some situations, you may want to hide one or more worksheets. Hiding a sheet may be useful if you don't want others to see it or if you just want to get it out of the way. When a sheet is hidden, its sheet tab is also hidden. You can't hide all the sheets in a workbook; at least one sheet must remain visible.

To hide a worksheet, right-click its sheet tab and choose Hide Sheet. The active worksheet (or selected worksheets) will be hidden from view.

Preventing Sheet Actions To prevent others from unhiding hidden sheets, inserting new sheets, renaming sheets, copying sheets, or deleting sheets, protect the workbook's structure: Choose Review Changes Protect Workbook. In the Protect Workbook dialog box, click the Structure option. (Optional) Provide a password. After performing these steps, several commands will no longer be available when you right-click a sheet tab: Insert, Delete Sheet, Rename Sheet, Move or Copy Sheet, Tab Color, Hide Sheet, and Unhide Sheet. Be aware, however, that this is a very weak security measure. Cracking Excel's protection features is relatively easy. You can also make a sheet "very hidden." A sheet that is very hidden doesn't appear in the Unhide dialog box. To make a sheet very hidden: Activate the worksheet. Choose Developer Controls Properties. The Properties dialog box, shown in the following figure, appears. (If the Developer tab isn't available, you can turn it on using the Customize Ribbon tab of the Excel Options dialog box.) In the Properties box, select the Visible option and choose 2 - xlSheetVeryHidden. After performing these steps, the worksheet is hidden and doesn't appear in the Unhide dialog box. Be careful! After you make a sheet very hidden, you can't use the Properties box to unhide it because you aren't able to select the sheet! To unhide such a sheet, press Alt+F11 to activate the Visual Basic Editor. Locate the workbook in the Projects window and select the name of the sheet that is very hidden. Press F4 to display the Properties box, in which you can change the Visible property back to −1 - xlSheetVisible

To unhide a hidden worksheet, right-click any sheet tab and choose Unhide Sheet. Excel opens its Unhide dialog box that lists all hidden sheets. Choose the sheet that you want to redisplay and click OK. For reasons known only to a Microsoft programmer who is probably retired by now, you can't select multiple sheets from this dialog box, so you need to repeat the command for each sheet that you want to unhide. When you unhide a sheet, it appears in its previous position among the sheet tabs.

3.2. Controlling the Worksheet View

As you add more information to a worksheet, you may find that navigating and locating what you want gets more difficult. Excel includes a few options that enable you to view your sheet, and sometimes multiple sheets, more efficiently. This section discusses a few additional worksheet options at your disposal.

3.2.1. Zooming in or out for a better view

Normally, everything you see onscreen is displayed at 100%. You can change the zoom percentage from 10% (very tiny) to 400% (huge). Using a small zoom percentage can help you to get a bird's-eye view of your worksheet to see how it's laid out. Zooming in is useful if your eyesight isn't quite what it used to be and you have trouble deciphering tiny type. Zooming doesn't change the font size, so it has no effect on printed output.

Figure 3.5 shows a window zoomed to 10% and a window zoomed to 400%.

You can easily change the zoom factor of the active worksheet by using the Zoom slider located on the right side of the status bar. Click and drag the slider, and your screen transforms instantly.

Another way to zoom is to choose View Zoom Zoom, which displays a dialog box. Choosing View Zoom Zoom to Selection zooms the worksheet to display only the selected cells (useful if you want a particular range of cells to fill the workbook window).

Zooming affects only the active worksheet, so you can use different zoom factors for different worksheets. Also, if you have a worksheet displayed in two different windows, you can set a different zoom factor for each of the windows.

3.2.2. Viewing a worksheet in multiple windows

Sometimes, you may want to view two different parts of a worksheet simultaneously — perhaps to make referencing a distant cell in a formula easier. Or you may want to examine more than one sheet in the same workbook simultaneously. You can accomplish either of these actions by opening a new view to the workbook, using one or more additional windows.

To create and display a new view of the active workbook, choose View Window New Window.

Excel displays a new window for the active workbook, similar to the one shown in Figure 3.6. In this case, each window shows a different worksheet in the workbook. Notice the text in the windows' title bars: climate data.xlsx:1 and climate data.xlsx:2. To help you keep track of the windows, Excel appends a colon and a number to each window.

If the workbook is maximized when you create a new window, you may not even notice that Excel created the new window. If you look at the Excel title bar, though, you'll see that the workbook title now has :2 appended to the name. Choose View Window Arrange All and choose one of the Arrange options in the Arrange Windows dialog box to display the open windows. If you select the Windows of Active Workbook check box, only the windows of the active workbook are arranged.

A single workbook can have as many views (that is, separate windows) as you want. Each window is independent. In other words, scrolling to a new location in one window doesn't cause scrolling in the other window(s). However, if you make changes to the worksheet shown in a particular window, those changes are also made in all views of that worksheet.

You can close these additional windows when you no longer need them. For example, clicking the Close button on the active window's title bar closes the active window but doesn't close the other windows for the workbook.

Multiple windows make copying or moving information from one worksheet to another easier. You can use Excel's drag-and-drop procedures to copy or move ranges.

3.2.3. Comparing sheets side by side

In some situations, you may want to compare two worksheets that are in different windows. The View Side by Side feature makes this task a bit easier.

First, make sure that the two sheets are displayed in separate windows. (The sheets can be in the same workbook or in different workbooks.) If you want to compare two sheets in the same workbook, choose View Window New Window to create a new window for the active workbook. Activate the first window; then choose View Window View Side by Side. If more than two windows are open, you see a dialog box that lets you select the window for the comparison. The two windows appear next to each other.

When using the Compare Side by Side feature, scrolling in one of the windows also scrolls the other window. If you don't want this simultaneous scrolling, choose View Window Synchronous Scrolling (which is a toggle). If you have rearranged or moved the windows, choose View Window Reset Window Position to restore the windows to the initial side-by-side arrangement. To turn off the side-by-side viewing, choose View Window View Side by Side again.

Keep in mind that this feature is for manual comparison only. Unfortunately, Excel doesn't provide a way to actually point out the differences between two sheets.

3.2.4. Splitting the worksheet window into panes

If you prefer not to clutter your screen with additional windows, Excel provides another option for viewing multiple parts of the same worksheet. Choosing View Window Split splits the active worksheet into two or four separate panes. The split occurs at the location of the cell pointer. If the cell pointer is in row 1 or column A, this command results in a two-pane split. Otherwise, it gives you four panes. You can use the mouse to drag the individual panes to resize them.

Figure 3.7 shows a worksheet split into two panes. Notice that row numbers aren't continuous. The top pane shows rows 8 through 21, and the bottom pane shows rows 1020 through 1029. In other words, splitting panes enables you to display in a single window widely separated areas of a worksheet. To remove the split panes, choose View Window Split again.

3.2.5. Keeping the titles in view by freezing panes

If you set up a worksheet with row or column headings, these headings will not be visible when you scroll down or to the right. Excel provides a handy solution to this problem: freezing panes. Freezing panes keeps the headings visible while you're scrolling through the worksheet.

To freeze panes, start by moving the cell pointer to the cell below the row that you want to remain visible while you scroll vertically, and to the right of the column that you want to remain visible while you scroll horizontally. Then, choose View Window Freeze Panes and select the Freeze Panes option from the drop-down list. Excel inserts dark lines to indicate the frozen rows and columns. The frozen row and column remain visible while you scroll throughout the worksheet. To remove the frozen panes, choose View Window Freeze Panes, and select the Unfreeze Panes option from the drop-down list.

Figure 3.8 shows a worksheet with frozen panes. In this case, rows 1:4 and column A are frozen in place. This technique allows you to scroll down and to the right to locate some information while keeping the column titles and the column A entries visible.

The vast majority of the time, you'll want to freeze either the first row or the first column. The View Window Freeze Panes drop-down list has two additional options: Freeze Top Row and Freeze First Column. Using these commands eliminates the need to position the cell pointer before freezing panes.

If you designated a range to be a table (by choosing Insert Tables Table), you may not even need to freeze panes. When you scroll down, Excel displays the table column headings in place of the column letters. Figure 3.9 shows an example. The table headings replace the column letters only when a cell within the table is selected.

3.2.6. Monitoring cells with a Watch Window

In some situations, you may want to monitor the value in a particular cell as you work. As you scroll throughout the worksheet, that cell may disappear from view. A feature known as Watch Window can help. A Watch Window displays the value of any number of cells in a handy window that's always visible.

To display the Watch Window, choose Formulas Formula Auditing Watch Window. The Watch Window appears in the task pane, but you can also drag it and make it float over the worksheet.

To add a cell to watch, click Add Watch and specify the cell that you want to watch. The Watch Window displays the value in that cell. You can add any number of cells to the Watch Window, and you can move the window to any convenient location. Figure 3.10 shows the Watch Window monitoring four cells.

Double-click a cell in the Watch Window to immediately select that cell.

3.3. Working with Rows and Columns

This section discusses worksheet operations that involve complete rows and columns (rather than individual cells). Every worksheet has exactly 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns, and these values can't be changed.

3.3.1. Inserting rows and columns

Although the number of rows and columns in a worksheet is fixed, you can still insert and delete rows and columns if you need to make room for additional information. These operations don't change the number of rows or columns. Rather, inserting a new row moves down the other rows to accommodate the new row. The last row is simply removed from the worksheet if it's empty. Inserting a new column shifts the columns to the right, and the last column is removed if it's empty.

To insert a new row or rows, you can use any of these techniques:

• Select an entire row or multiple rows by clicking the row numbers in the worksheet border. Right-click and choose Insert from the shortcut menu.

• Move the cell pointer to the row that you want to insert and then choose Home Cells Insert Insert Sheet Rows. If you select multiple cells in the column, Excel inserts additional rows that correspond to the number of cells selected in the column and moves the rows below the insertion down.

The procedures for inserting a new column or columns is similar, but you choose Home Cells Insert Insert Sheet Columns.

You also can insert cells, rather than just rows or columns. Select the range into which you want to add new cells and then choose Home Cells Insert Insert Cells (or right-click the selection and choose Insert). To insert cells, the existing cells must be shifted to the right or shifted down. Therefore, Excel displays the Insert dialog box shown in Figure 3.12 so that you can specify the direction in which you want to shift the cells.

3.3.2. Deleting rows and columns

You may also want to delete rows or columns in a worksheet. For example, your sheet may contain old data that is no longer needed.

To delete a row or rows, use either of these methods:

• Select an entire row or multiple rows by clicking the row numbers in the worksheet border. Right-click and choose Delete from the shortcut menu.

• Move the cell pointer to the row that you want to delete and then choose Home Cells Delete Sheet Rows. If you select multiple cells in the column, Excel deletes all rows in the selection.

Deleting columns works in a similar way. If you discover that you accidentally deleted a row or column, select Undo from the Quick Access toolbar (or press Ctrl+Z) to undo the action.

3.3.3. Hiding rows and columns

In some cases, you may want to hide particular rows or columns. Hiding rows and columns may be useful if you don't want users to see particular information, or if you need to print a report that summarizes the information in the worksheet without showing all the details.

To hide rows or columns in your worksheet, select the row or rows that you want to hide by clicking in the row or column header. Then right-click and choose Hide from the shortcut menu. Or, you can use the commands on the Home Cells Format Hide & Unhide drop-down list.

You also can drag the row or column's border to hide the row or column. You must drag the border in the row or column heading. Drag the bottom border of a row upward or the border of a column to the left.

A hidden row is actually a row with its height set to zero. Similarly, a hidden column has a column width of zero. When you use the navigation keys to move the cell pointer, cells in hidden rows or columns are skipped. In other words, you can't use the navigation keys to move to a cell in a hidden row or column.

Unhiding a hidden row or column can be a bit tricky because selecting a row or column that's hidden is difficult. The solution is to select the columns or rows that are adjacent to the hidden column or row. (Select at least one column or row on either side.) Then right-click and choose Unhide. For example, if column G is hidden, select columns F and H.

Another method is to choose Home Find & Select Go To (or its F5 equivalent) to select a cell in a hidden row or column. For example, if column A is hidden, you can press F5 and specify cell A1 (or any other cell in column A) to move the cell pointer to the hidden column. Then you can choose Home Cells Format Hide & Unhide Unhide Columns.

3.3.4. Changing column widths and row heights

Often, you'll want to change the width of a column or the height of a row. For example, you can make columns narrower to accommodate more information on a printed page. Or you may want to increase row height to create a "double-spaced" effect.

Excel provides several different ways to change the widths of columns and the height of rows.

3.3.4.1. Changing column widths

Column width is measured in terms of the number of characters of a fixed pitch font that will fit into the cell's width. By default, each column's width is 8.43 units, which equates to 64 pixels (px).

If hash symbols (#) fill a cell that contains a numerical value, the column isn't wide enough to accommodate the information in the cell. Widen the column to solve the problem.

Before you change the column width, you can select multiple columns so that the width will be the same for all selected columns. To select multiple columns, either click and drag in the column border or press Ctrl while you select individual columns. To select all columns, click the button where the row and column headers intersect. You can change columns widths by using any of the following techniques.

• Drag the right-column border with the mouse until the column is the desired width.

• Choose Home Cells Format Column Width and enter a value in the Column Width dialog box.

• Choose Home Cells Format AutoFit Column Width to adjust the width of the selected column so that the widest entry in the column fits. Rather than selecting an entire column, you can just select cells in the column, and the column is adjusted based on the widest entry in your selection.

• Double-click the right border of a column header to set the column width automatically to the widest entry in the column.

To change the default width of all columns, choose Home Cells Format Column Default Width. This command displays a dialog box into which you enter the new default column width. All columns that haven't been previously adjusted take on the new column width.

After you manually adjust a column's width, Excel will no longer automatically adjust the column to accommodate longer numerical entries. You need to change the column width manually.

3.3.4.2. Changing row heights

Row height is measured in points (pt; a standard unit of measurement in the printing trade — 72 pt is equal to 1 inch). The default row height using the default font is 15 pt, or 20 px.

The default row height can vary, depending on the font defined in the Normal style. In addition, Excel automatically adjusts row heights to accommodate the tallest font in the row. So, if you change the font size of a cell to 20 pt, for example, Excel makes the row taller so that the entire text is visible.

You can set the row height manually, however, by using any of the following techniques. As with columns, you can select multiple rows.

• Drag the lower row border with the mouse until the row is the desired height.

• Choose Home Cells Format Row Height and enter a value (in points) in the Row Height dialog box.

• Double-click the bottom border of a row to set the row height automatically to the tallest entry in the row. You also can choose Home Cells Format Autofit Row Height for this task.

Changing the row height is useful for spacing out rows and is almost always preferable to inserting empty rows between lines of data.