# Microsoft Office Application Help - Excel Help forum > Excel General >  > [SOLVED] How do I change the cell padding in excel?

## criticalpath

I need to add white space to each row of a spreadsheet where height is
auto-adjusted. A feixed row height will not work here.  Please help!

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## Gord Dibben

You want the whitespace at the top or bottom of the cells?

To maintain Autofit and have whitespace you can add an ALT + ENTER ahead of or
behind the text.

Try this.

Select a cell with autofit row.

F2 to edit.

Point to start of text and hit ALT + ENTER to add a blank line.

Also make sure the cell is set to "Wrap Text"

If you have a great whack to do, a macro could be provided.


Gord Dibben Excel MVP


On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 15:17:02 -0800, criticalpath
<criticalpath@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I need to add white space to each row of a spreadsheet where height is
>auto-adjusted. A feixed row height will not work here.  Please help!

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## Desert Piranha

Hi Gord,
Would you pease tell me what is a "great whack"?
I'm not trying to be rude, i really don't know.
thx
Dave




> You want the whitespace at the top or bottom of the cells?
> 
> To maintain Autofit and have whitespace you can add an ALT + ENTER ahead of or
> behind the text.
> 
> Try this.
> 
> Select a cell with autofit row.
> 
> ...

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## Gord Dibben

A large number of cells to deal with is a "great whack".

2 is a couple
3-5 is a few
6-9 is several
10-15 is a bunch
16 and over is a great whack

Adding the line feed is a manual cell by cell operation and could take a
while.

A macro could add a line feed to all cells in a selection with the click of a
button or shortcut key combo.


Gord


On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 21:20:10 -0600, Desert Piranha
<Desert.Piranha.20h3vm_1135308301.3099@excelforum-nospam.com> wrote:

>
>Hi Gord,
>Would you pease tell me what is a "great whack"?
>I'm not trying to be rude, i really don't know.
>thx
>Dave
>Gord Dibben Wrote:
>> You want the whitespace at the top or bottom of the cells?
>>
>> To maintain Autofit and have whitespace you can add an ALT + ENTER
>> ahead of or
>> behind the text.
>>
>> Try this.
>>
>> Select a cell with autofit row.
>>
>> F2 to edit.
>>
>> Point to start of text and hit ALT + ENTER to add a blank line.
>>
>> Also make sure the cell is set to "Wrap Text"
>>
>> If you have a great whack to do, a macro could be provided.
>>
>>
>> Gord Dibben Excel MVP
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 15:17:02 -0800, criticalpath
>> <criticalpath@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> >I need to add white space to each row of a spreadsheet where height
>> is
>> >auto-adjusted. A feixed row height will not work here.  Please help!

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## Desert Piranha

Hi Gord,
Thx for the enlightenment on the "great whack". Very interesting.  :Smilie:  
Thx again
Dave




> A large number of cells to deal with is a "great whack".
> 
> 2 is a couple
> 3-5 is a few
> 6-9 is several
> 10-15 is a bunch
> 16 and over is a great whack
> 
> Adding the line feed is a manual cell by cell operation and could take a
> ...

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## suzubeane

Is there are way to do this without adding a whole line? I just want my text to NOT sit right on the bottom border line of the cell. I don't want to add a whole line to do that. 

FWIW, my rows are going to be all different sizes. I want to be able to auto size them without having to edit cells or add lines. If you can "indent" cells from the left automatically in "cell formatting," can't you dictate how much space appears at the bottom?

Also, I have a great whack to do!  :Wink:  

Thoughts, anyone?

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## EdMac

If you just want them centred vertically

Highlight rang of cells
Right click
Format>alignment>vertical>center

Ed

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## suzubeane

Thanks Ed, but I don't want them centered vertically. I want them to be aligned at the top, and I want the cells to automatically adjust for hight. I also want the lowest line of text to not be sitting *right on* the black line that separates the cells.

FWIW, when I tried centering them vertically, the cells that have the most text wrpaped in them (and the most rows of text per cell) *still* had the lowest line of text sitting on the black line.

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## EdMac

Hi suzubeane,

I've been out the office for a few days.

I think you have a problem.  I don't consider myself an expert but the problem you describe is one I have come across before where rows have varying amounts of text.  The only way I know of getting the result you want is by manually adjusting in the row headers or setting the row height to the greatest size you expect - that may mean a lot of white space surrounding some entries.

Alternatively, if you set the line height to an acceptable average, then you would only have to alter the exceptions.

HTH

Ed

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## pnmjn

Can you post a macro to add a blank row at the top and bottom of a cell?

Cell is set to wrap text and auto height.

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## shg

Welcome to the forum.

Please take a few minutes to read the forum rules, and then start your own thread.

Thanks.

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## philiptdotcom

I completely understand your problem; it can be succinctly described as needing the capability that "cellpadding" affords in HTML.

I, too, wish I knew how to do this in Excel.  It seems like such a straightforward (and commonly-needed) problem, but...  "???"

I look forward to hearing from someone who can provide a solution to this.

Aloha,
pt

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## arthurbr

_Your post does not comply with Rule 2 of our Forum_ RULES. Don't post a question in the thread of another member -- start your own thread. If you feel it's particularly relevant, provide a link to the other thread.

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