How to Make Cells Independent in Excel (5 Methods)

Resizing the cells in Excel to make them independent of other cells is an essential thing to do when it comes to putting a larger word or number in a cell. I’m going to show five methods of how to make the cells independent in Excel from others in this article.

I have the following dataset to explain these methods. The figure shows brief information about some persons in a charity organization- their ages, contributions per month, along with Members’ Name and ID numbers.

How to Make Cells Independent in Excel: 5 Easy Methods

1. Adjusting Column Width to Make Cell Size Independent

By adjusting column width, you can make the cells independent in Excel. This process can be done in two ways for larger words or numbers.

1.1. Using Double Click to Adjust

If we need to write a word like a person’s name, the characters in that name don’t fit in a cell most of the time. Watch the figure below. I want to type the first name, which is Bryan Danielson, but it overflows the cell B5. This problem may occur for other names too.

To solve this problem, first press ENTER after typing Bryan Danielson. Insert other names one by one.

You can see that some of the names don’t fit in the cells (I didn’t put the other entries for convenience).

Now put your cursor on the marked area of the following figure.

An icon will appear. Now double-click on it to complete this operation, which will fit the cells automatically.

Thus, you can make the cells of column B independent of other cells.

1.2. Using AutoFit Command From Format

You can do this by using the AutoFit command from the Format option of the Ribbon too.

Type the names of members in cells B5 to B12. You will see that these cells cannot contain the names completely in themselves.

Now select cells B5 to B12. Go Home >> Format >> AutoFit Column Width.

This operation will fit the names in their cells and make them independent of others.

2. Adjusting Row Height to Make Cell Size Independent in Excel

Now, we are going to discuss adjusting row height. We can do this in two different ways too. Let’s go to the procedure.

2.1. Using Double Click to Adjust

Type Members’ Name in cell B4. Press ALT + ENTER before typing Name. I did not enter other data for convenience.

Now press ENTER.

You see that the heading Members’ Name is not clear in cell B4. The same thing will happen when you type Contributions (USD) in cell D4.

Now, put your cursor on the icon.

Double-click on it, and then you will see that the headings independently fit perfectly in cells B4 and D4.

2.2. Using AutoFit Command From Format

Type Members’ Name in cell B4. Press ALT + ENTER before typing Name. I did not enter other data for convenience.

Now press ENTER.

You see that the heading Members’ Name is not clear in cell B4. The same thing will happen when you type Contributions (USD) in cell D4.

Now select any of the cells of the 4th row and then select Home >> Format >> AutoFit Row Height.

This operation will fit the 4th row clearly, and thus it will make the cell size independent of others.

Read More: How to AutoFit in Excel

3. Make Cells Independent by Using Column Width

We can also define the cell size in 2 different ways to make cells independent of others.

3.1. Dragging Mouse to Set a Point

Suppose you get the following figure after putting the entries in column B in a new Excel Sheet.

Now put your cursor in the marked area of the following figure.

Now drag it to the right until the heading and name fit in cells. In this case, we dragged to the point where the column width becomes 14.29 units (marked in the following figure).

After that, you will see the names perfectly fitted in the cells independently.

Thus, we can make the cell sizes in column B independent of others.

3.2. Using Column Width from Format

We also can do this operation from the Format option of ribbon.

Suppose you get the following figure after putting the entries in column B.

Select cells from B4 to B12. Then select Home >> Format >> Column Width.

You will see a dialog box on the screen. Type 14.3 or any other column width unit you want to put.

Now click OK.

By following this method, you can define column width on your own to make the cell sizes independent of the other cells.

4. Defining Row Height to Make Cells Independent

This method is almost similar to the 3rd method. We are going to change row height instead of column width this time.

4.1. Dragging Mouse to Set a Point

Type Members’ Name in cell B4, like in section 2.1.

Press ENTER. You cannot see this heading clearly in the cell. The same thing will happen if you type Contributions (USD).

Now put your cursor on the icon of the following figure.

Now drag it down until these headings fit in cells B4 and D4. In this case, we dragged until the row height became 36 units (marked in the figure).

Now you will see that the cells can contain the headings clearly, and they become independent of other cells.

4.2. Using Row Height from Format

We also can do this operation from Format ribbon.

Type Members’ Name in cell B4.

Now press ENTER. You cannot see this heading clearly in the cell. The same thing will happen if you type Contributions (USD) like in section 2.1.

Select any of the cells in the 4th row. Then select Format >> Row Height.

Type 36 in the dialog box and click OK.

Now you will see the headings perfectly fitted in cells B4 and D4.

By following this method, you can define column width on your own to make the cell sizes independent of the other cells.

5. Merging Cells for Making the Cells Independent in Excel

Suppose you want to put a main heading on this chart. You want to type Members’ Information in the marked area. We can do this using Merge & Center from the Alignment ribbon.

Select cell B4 and type Members’ Information
Now press ENTER.

Now select cells B4 to E4.
Then select Home >> Merge & Center

You will see that those 4 cells (B4 to E4) have turned into one cell. Thus, it becomes independent of other cells. You can make the text bold and format it in your own way. You also can merge both cells from rows and columns at a time.

Practice Section

I have given the dataset in this section, so you can practice on your own using the methods I described in this article.

Download Practice Workbook

Make Cells Independent.xlsx

Conclusion

It’s very easy to make the cell size independent of the other cells in an Excel sheet. There may be other methods to do it, but I tried to describe easier ones. Hope you will be benefited from this article. If you have any feedback or questions or ideas, feel free to leave them in the comment box.

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