How to Autofit in Microsoft Excel

Taylor Karl / Monday, November 1, 2021

/ Categories: Resources, Microsoft Office

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How to Autofit in Microsoft Excel

Excel doesn't have to be difficult! United Training has started a series for those of you looking for some quick and easy tips on some of the most asked questions for Excel. We are going to jump into how to autofit in Excel and explain the keyboard shortcuts for this task for every user, PC or Mac!

Select the column or column you would like to format: There are several ways you can complete this and it all boils down to personal preference. Head to the Cells Section and Click Format: Our "Cells" section is located between your "Styles" and "Editing" Sections displayed below.

Select the Column Letter and let the entire column adjust as you move through the steps. This option is great for a sheet without any additional formatting.
Select the Column Letter and then hold the CTRL button down on your keyboard and select the individual cells you may want to exclude. For example, the sheet we are working on within the screenshots has a title and picture above the actual information, so we used this method to deselect the cells we don't need to adjust.

Head to the Cells Section and Click Format: Our "Cells" section is located between your "Styles" and "Editing" Sections displayed below.

Under Cell Size, click AutoFit Column Width: This is the fourth option from the top of the drop-down menu.

Before: This is the width of the column prior to adjusting the Width.

After: You can see the column has now adjusted the width to the length of the longest word in the selected columns.

Short and Sweet
You can cancel out the steps of clicking dropdown boxes by using this keyboard shortcut. For PC Users, you will click the ALT + H then O then I. You do not have to press all the buttons simultaneously. Only ALT + H keys need to be pressed at the same time. The O and I can follow one another.

For Mac users, the keyboard shortcut is not actively available as a preset option. You would need to at it manually in your keyboard settings by following these steps.

Go to System Preferences
Keyboard
Shortcuts Tab
Select "App Shortcuts"
Clicking the Plus button +, selecting Excel, and recording your key combination.
In this case, you must type in AutoFit Selection, just as it appears on the menu in Excel. (Format > Column > AutoFit Selection)

After you have successfully added the shortcut, you can use any combination of your choosing to complete this task in Excel.

For more Excel tips head to our Blog or you can venture to our Webinar Page to see what amazing events we have slated for the future!