For example, if you press the Alt key as you draw, your shapes will snap to the corners of the cells. (You can also turn on the "Snap to Grid" option, but using Alt is more convenient) Holding the Shift key will scale shapes proportionally.
Instead of explaining the steps to creating the grid, I'll just provide a couple of tips. First, the column width is dependent upon the font of the Normal style (which by default is usually Arial). Quoting from Excel's VBA help file (the ColumnWidth property):
"One unit of column width is equal to the width of one character in the Normal style. For proportional fonts, the width of the character 0 (zero) is used."The row height is measured in points (1pt = 1/72 inch or about 1/28 centimeters). A point is a "unit of measure referring to the height of a printed character" (quoting from the VBA help file for the RowHeight property).
Now, assuming that you are using an Arial font, you create different grid sizes using the following table:
| Font Size | Row Height | Column Width |
|---|---|---|
| 10pt | 12.75 | 1.71 |
| 8pt | 11.25 | 1.43 |
| 6pt | 8.25 | 0.92 |
To make sure that the cells are square, create a square using the drawing tools (making sure you hold down the Shift key, or you'll end up with some arbitrary rectangle).
I've notice that when I print from Excel, the grid doesn't always end up square, so the drawing is no longer the same aspect ratio as on the screen. To get around this, I just copy and paste into PowerPoint. There may be a better solution, but I haven't found it yet. One approximate rule of thumb for printing a square grid is to make the row heights 1 pixel larger than the column widths.
Update 2/9/2010: I just created a Graph Paper template for Excel and Word that include a variety of different square grid sizes as well as an isometric grid. I also came across a good article on mrexcel.com: Excel as Gridpaper for Drawing.
7 comments :
Good luck with the new blog, I look forward to reading it!
Ross
Wow... look at all the information out here... Square cells in Excel. And I was actually just wondering this. Thanks for whoever posted this... keep up the good work!
Actually, I have been using the following code, which sets the width first:
Private Sub MakeSquareCells()
Dim duh As Long
Dim myPts As Long
Dim myRange As Range
On Error GoTo TheEnd
Set myRange = Application.InputBox("Select a range in which to create square cells", Type:=8)
On Error Resume Next
If myRange.Cells.Count = 0 Then Exit Sub
duh = Val(InputBox("Input Column Width: "))
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
For Each c In myRange.Columns
c.EntireColumn.ColumnWidth = duh
Next c
myPts = myRange(1).Width
For Each r In myRange.Rows
r.EntireRow.RowHeight = myPts
Next r
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
TheEnd:
End Sub
Thank's a lot!
a simple solution could be
- select all cells
- drag and resize the columns to a desired pixel size (you will see column width in both points and pixels as you drag and resize)
- repeat the same for rows (selecting the same pixel size)
- this should give you a worksheet with perfectly sized square cells
Making the column widths and the row heights equal to the same number of pixels works for on screen, but this will not mean that the grid will be square when printed.
Wow, Great thanks for square cells. You rock Jon!
Post a Comment