How do I adjust Excel cell margins in Office 2007?

[Heather]

How do I adjust Excel cell margins in Office 2007? I thought it would be
under format cells, but there only margin settings I can find are for the
entire worksheet. Please help!
Thanks,

 

[Gord Dibben]

You cannot adjust the margins on a single cell.

Column widths and row heights are properties of the entire column or row.

Adjust one or both of those to increase cell sizes.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Heather]

Thanks for your post Gord. That makes sense. But then how do I get each row
of cells to have more "padding" between the text inside the cell and the edge
of the cell? The reason I wanted to adjust the margins inside the cells is
because my text is hard to read. I wanted to add more room at the end of each
row of cells, without having to do it by manually adjusting the row height.
Even using the AutoFit Row Height Feature, when I go to print my document,
inevitably some of the text does not print (although it shows up on my screen
as if it's going to print just fine). I have to go through my document, row
by row, and manually increase my row height to give extra padding so that
when I print, all my text prints.

Any ideas?
Thanks again!

 

[Gord Dibben]

Sorry, I misread the question.

Interior cell margins can be set using the Indent feature.

In Excel 2003 it would be found at Format>Cells>Alignment>Indent

I don't know much about finding these features in 2007..........not installed
yet.


Gord

 

[Tyro]

In Excel 2007, increase/decrease indent is on the ribbon - Home/Alignment
group. Also in the Format Cells dialog, Ctrl+1, or click on the dialog
launcher, lower right hand corner of the alignment group.

 

[Jon Peltier]

You cannot control internal cell margins in Excel the way you can in Word.
The best you can do is use the Indent feature, as Gord and Tyro have
described.

- Jon

 

[jenssan]

The indent works for the left margin, what about top & bottom?
My spreadsheet "squishes" the text even after selecting Auto Row Height. It
looks okay in worksheet view but not when printed. Any suggestions?

 

[Dusty]

I know your message is old, but did you ever find out how to adjust the top
and bottom margins? I have the same problem in 2003.

 

[jenssan]

Hi Dusty,
I never have figured it out.

 

[Bonnie]

I work in Excel 2007. I find it very frustrating to not be able to adjust
the internal margins (padding) of cells to avoid the text from cell-to-cell
all being smashed together.
I do go in and put a forced return before and after the text in a cell to
separate it, but that is annoying to have to do.

MicroSoft? Can't you do something about this?

I found and option to do it through "text box pane" but cannot get there.

HELP HELP HELP

 

[Fred Smith]

Have you experimented with adjusting the column width or row height? Try
dragging to make columns wider or rows higher. Another shortcut is to
double-click at a column boundary (between C and D, for example). That will
adjust the column width to accommodate the largest data entry.

Regards,
Fred

 

[Gord Dibben]

Format>Cells>Alignment>Horizontal

You can set left or right indent.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[john willard]

Apprently this ability was lost on Excel 2007. In Excel 2003, you selected options in the Table Property window. There you could set the cell margin (padding) for the top/bttom/left/right edges at the same time and apply it to the whole table. The results give the text in the cell space around all the edges.

I'm still looking for the answer, surely this ability is still there but just not easy to find.

 

[Vic Roze]

In case you are still trying, to adjust the top and bottom margins, without coding, I have found only one way to get the effect I was needing in my case.

What I am doing is reducing the upper and lower "margins' so my text is really close to the top and bottom borders for the cells in question. This will also work with expanding, but one will need to choose the appropriate vertical alignment. This is not ideal, but:

1 - Set Format Cell/Alignment/Vertical to Center
2 - Adjust the row height by your favorite method, e.g.:
2a - Right-click on row/Row Height
2b - Squish or expand the row height manually