Embarrassingly simple Excel question

[Binoculars]

I'm ashamed to post this here, but I'll delete it as soon as I get an answer and a hope that a bare minimum of people realise how dumb I really am.

I used to use Claris Works for simple spreadsheets. When I wanted a new spreadsheet the first question that came up was how many rows and columns do you want? This seemed so obvious that I never gave it any thought, I just used it. Now in Excel I want to create a spreadsheet so simple that a Word table would do almost the same job, but there are a couple of 1+1=2 formulas. So, given that I only want a maximum of eight columns with infinite rows, how do I avoid getting a page view full of columns I don't need?

:O :O (how humiliating :ooh: )

[Farmer 1]

Not absolutely sure if this is what you want, but:

Highlight the eight columns, then drag the width of one of the highlighted columns towards the right. Adjust as necessary.

[ZH875]

I dont think you can, apart from hiding them, but does it really matter, just use the rows and columns that you want. (265 Cols and 65535 Rows to choose from).

You can always put a border around your 'active' cells and remove gridlines from every cell outside that, so what you don't use is left as plain white background.

[Doors to Automatic]

You can also hide any columns you dont need by highlighting them and selecting "hide" from the menu.

[Binoculars]

265 Cols and 65535 Rows to choose from

err, precisely. Which is why I asked how to get rid of them. :hmm:

Thanks D to A, that worked. :ok: But I'll leave the post here because it turned out to be not as silly as I thought. I tried every subject I could in Excel help and never came close to finding the answer. The Claris Works solution was so obvious and elegant I couldn't believe it wasn't a possibility in the world's most widely used spreadsheet. Silly me, after all this time!

[ZH875]

I still cannot see why you need to get rid of unused columns & rows, as if you ever needed them they are already there. However, if you do not wish anyone to use cells outside the area you are using, you can always lock the others so they cannot be used.

Is there any particular reason for 'removing' these cells, or is it just a case of you are used to Claris Works and just want to keep that same warm feeling.

[Binoculars]

I just want my small spreadsheet to occupy only the columns it needs. I want it to be the whole document. I don't want to have to select the cells needed when I want to print, I don't want three quarters of the screen taken up with blank cells bI will never use. Now whether those requirements are dumb or have a nice warm feeling attached to them I would think is irrelevant. If that's what I want, even if others can't understand why, it should surely be easily available on a M$ product without my having to ask on a website?

[Jhieminga]

Bino's, although I cannot verify it I think that what you want to do is not possible in Excel. One small document will always at least contain one sheet with the maximum number of cells.

To make sure that it will always print right I would suggest selecting the cells that you want and selecting 'File'-'Print area...'-'Set printing area'. Now go to the 'File' menu again and in 'Page setup' select 'Fit to 1 page wide by 1 tall' and choose portrait or landscape as needed.

These settings will not go away so you should not have to select any cells whenever you want to print this sheet again. (As long as you don't expand the area of the sheet you're using beyond the printing area of course.)

[AppleMacster]

Binos,

Jhieminga is right about it printing-wise. If you don't want to see lots of blank cells, make the window smaller. Save the document like this and it will open at this smaller size each time. At least you get most of your screen back.

AppleMacster

[SyllogismCheck]

I'm with you, Binos.

I have reason to create fairly small spreadsheets for work on a regular basis whilst relying on my entire knowledge of Excel which is, to say the least, basic.

It annoys me too when a sheet which only needs to have ten or twenty columns and a couple of hundred rows goes on and on forever. For one thing it makes using vertical scroll bar to whizz to the approximate area of the sheet you want to work on a hit and miss affair. If it only represented the rows in use it'd be far easier to judge.

So, I for one am glad you asked the question. I too shall be trying the solutions suggested.