Setting column widths when mapping out a field trial.

[Candys Kisses]

Not sure this question is in the right section but here goes.

I have to design a field trial in Excel which is basically a map of a plot
of plants.

Reading down the spreadsheet I have 4 rows of 20 colums A1 to T4 - 4 rows of
20 plants.

Then I have 4 rows of 12 plants A5 to L8 and a further 4 rows of 12 plants
A9 to L12 but what I need is for the 2nd and 3rd groups to visually fill the
same width as the first set - so that my rows of 12 plants are in line with
the end of the first set ie that the row of 12 ends in line at column T.

The only way I can see to do this is by merging cells as I cannot set column
widths in just a selection of cells without the whole column changing width.

So for the 20 cells I merged 20 groups of 3 cells and the 12 cells I merged
12 groups of 5 cells from A to BH.

Is this the only/easiest/best way of doing this, does this make any sense at
all?

Thanks!

 

[Pete_UK]

If all you want to use it for is to produce a visual map of the plot,
then merging cells is fine, and you have found the hcf is 60. However,
merging cells can cause problems with some Excel functions, and I am
sure there are more suitable programs than Excel for doing this sort
of thing.

A *slightly* different approach would be to highlight three adjacent
cells on the upper rows and use Format | Cells | Alignment | Centre
across selection (under horizontal alignment), and for the lower rows
highlight five adjacent cells and repeat.

Hope this helps.

Pete