You might want to resize multiple rows to a certain size at the same time in case you’re handling a row size that goes across from Column A to Column Z.
When you copy and paste raw data from an outside source such as a website or Microsoft Excel to Google Sheets, they sometimes end up looking constricted or have their text or numbers overflowing from the cell (thus necessitating you to text wrap them and whatnot).
You might even have to deal with resizing multiple rows to see what you’re working with. Let’s now delve deep into how to resize multiple rows in google sheets.
Resize Multiple Rows in Google Sheets
Raw data you’ve copied from an outside source or even from a fellow Google Sheets spreadsheet then pasted on an empty spreadsheet might end up looking funky because some of its original formatting will end up missing, leading you to unformatted text with no wrapping that looks all wrong.
They might even try to fit into the default width and height of your empty spreadsheet. Long story short, they can look real funky.
It can be quite a drag having to resize every last row or column manually by yourself—especially if they cover Column A to Column Z or Row 1 to Row 1000—so thankfully this guide is here to show you a shortcut on how to do it.
We’ll also cover how to “regularly” resize row and columns in Google Sheets by the drag & drop method or other methods available.
How to Resize Multiple Rows in Google Sheets
Step 1: Here’s an example of unformatted data pasted on a blank spreadsheet slate on Google Sheets. Instead of having to resize every row—and these cover about 50 top scorers in the NBA in 2022—there’s a way to do it instantly.
Step 2: First off, click the upper-left gray pane or use the Ctrl + A shortcut in order to select your whole spreadsheet.
You can also simply select the table instead of the whole spreadsheet. You can highlight multiple columns or rows by pressing on Ctrl then doing mouse clicks on the rows or columns you wish to select.
Step 3: Resize the topmost row or row 1 by clicking and dragging Row 1’s bottom part. Your cursor will turn into a double-headed arrow as you do this.
This should result in all the other rows you’ve selected to follow suit and get resized the same way as the first row. It acts like an “Apply to All” feature, in other words.
Step 4: You can also do this for columns. Resize the first column or Column A and all the other columns should follow suit as well, just like what you did with the multiple rows you’ve selected.
Actually, even if you do this on Column B instead (which in this spreadsheet, contains the NBA player names), the same result should happen.
How to Resize Rows and Columns in Google Sheets
To change the column width or row height, do the following.
Step 1: Select a single row or column you wish to resize. In this example, we’ve selected Column B, which contains the names of the NBA players that have been obscured by the smallness of the column width.
Step 2: Right-click on the column letter of Column B then click “Resize column”. If you had selected a row number instead, go for “Resize row” in turn.
Step 3: You have two options now. You can either enter a column width measured in pixels or you can select “Fit to data”. To err on the side of caution, let’s select “Fit to data”, but you can experiment on column width or row height by pixel too.
Step 4: Your column now fits with the data or the maximum amount of pixels that the longest names of the Top 50 NBA scorers can fit into.
Step 5: You can manually change the width and height of rows and columns by clicking and dragging the edges of the row numbers or column letters at will.
What works with columns also works with rows.
For Good Measure
To resize multiple rows or the entire spreadsheet in just a few seconds, just select the entire spreadsheet by clicking on the upper-left gray pane or pressing Ctrl + A on your Windows PC. From there, resize any row or column.
The rest of the cells, rows, and columns should duplicate what you did across the board. You can also do this on select rows and columns.
References:
- “Can’t resize multiple rows in Sheets“, Google.com Support, Retrieved June 15, 2022
- “Change row height or column width“, Google.com Support, Retrieved June 15, 2022
- Goldy Arora, “Bulk Resize columns and rows in google sheets – Watch Video“, YouTube, March 22, 2018