Can row width vary?

[dzelnio]

I want to be able to adjust row heigth on columns A-F and I want to
"lock" row heigth on the rest of the columns. Essentially, row one
may go from a tall to a short row. Naturally, rows won't line up
perfectly. I expect that

 

[CyberTaz]

All cells in the same row must be the same height. There are some that will
tell you that the effect can be attained by merging cells, but - if the
workbook will be actively used for anything other than printing "blank"
copies of a form to be filled in by hand - it is a recipe for disaster.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I want to be able to adjust row heigth on columns A-F and I want to
"lock" row heigth on the rest of the columns. Essentially, row one
may go from a tall to a short row. Naturally, rows won't line up
perfectly. I expect that

Row height is a property of rows rather than cells, so the entire row
will always be the same height.

You could, conceivably, set the row heights of adjacent rows, and merge
cells to simulate a varying row height, but merged cells usually cause
more problems than they're worth.

 

[Carl Witthoft]

Row height is a property of rows rather than cells, so the entire row
will always be the same height.

You could, conceivably, set the row heights of adjacent rows, and merge
cells to simulate a varying row height, but merged cells usually cause
more problems than they're worth.

What this points out is a common, and very bad, choice: using Excel to
create a "form" page to print out. Merged cells always leads to
headaches of one kind or another. Further, it's an incredible waste
of time and effort to add funky colors and borders. You're far better
off dumping (copy/paste or linking) the output data into a database tool
(preferably) or at the very least, a table in some word processor.

 

[dzelnio]

Thanks for the heads up. What database tool were you talking about?

 

[CyberTaz]

Without knowing more about how you intend to work with the program it's hard
to be certain, but IMHO Carl may be overstating the concern just a tad
Laying out a form for print purposes isn't a problem. I've used Excel for a
number of such projects including score sheets for several different
divisions of a dart league I was in. I *never* would have been able to do
that type of layout work in a word processing program. As long as you're not
trying to use the form for ongoing modification including calculations, etc.
it should be fine.

There are also quite a few form design applications that make it even
easier, but whether they would be worth your while is also difficult to
determine. A desktop publishing program can also be useful, but requires
additional expense.

If you do intend to manipulate data, then Yes, a data management program may
be more the way to go. Something such as FileMaker Pro might be a
consideration. There are probably others as well, but I can't suggest any
others right off as most of the database work I've done over the last
several years has been on the Dark Side - primarily using Access & a few
others that aren't available for Mac.

--
Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Thanks for the heads up. What database tool were you talking about?

 

[Carl Witthoft]

Yeah, I came on a bit strong, but you should see the train wrecks I have
to try to fix at work :-( .

FMPro is nice but costs a bit. OpenOffice has a database tool, tho' I
haven't played with it extensively.