The words I’m trying to put in a cell are too wide to fit inside the cell.

Just make the column wider. Excel’s columns are set to a default width of 8.43 characters, which was set up to handle the average character count in the standard font. But columns can stretch anywhere from zero characters wide (which constitutes a hidden column) to 255 characters wide. To change a column’s width, put the cursor over the vertical bar dividing one column’s label from another (such as the line between E and F) and click and drag it left or right. You can let Excel fix the width for you by clicking a cell and going to the Home tab’s Cells group. Click Format and choose AutoFit Column Width. For an even quicker adjustment, double-click the right border beside the column’s letter. This automatically adjusts the column’s width to handle the widest item in the column.

I have many cells that are too narrow. I need a fast fix for all of them.

You can AutoFit every cell at once by using the Select All button. If you didn’t know there was such a thing, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. Clicking the little triangle icon in the upper-left corner between A and 1 selects every cell. To AutoFit all of their widths to their contents, double-click the vertical bar between any two columns.

If you’d rather adjust the widths of a few adjacent columns in one step, select them all at once by holding down SHIFT as you click the letter at the top of each column. Then drag the bar on the right side of the rightmost column. All the columns will match the width of the one you adjust. The same trick works for nonadjacent cells; just hold down CTRL instead of SHIFT as you click them.

But one cell’s contents are a lot wider than everything else in the column, and all the extra space looks odd in every cell except that one.

In that case, try wrapping the long text on several rows inside that cell rather than making the cell wider. Right-click the cell and choose Format Cells. Click the Alignment tab, checkmark Wrap Text, and click OK. Now you can make the column narrower, and Excel will create as many lines of text as necessary to make the words fit into the cell’s width. (This still may not please you aesthetically, though, because now this cell is probably taller than the others in its row.)

I dragged a column to such a narrow width that I can’t see it anymore. I can’t even find anything to click on to enlarge it again.

Making a column this narrow actually hides it. If you do this accidentally and realize it immediately, the best bet is using the undo function (press CTRL-Z) to step backward until Excel undoes the troublesome dragging operation. If you intentionally hid the column or did it long enough ago that Undo isn’t a viable choice, use the Unhide function. Select the columns to the left and right of the hidden ones (such as E and G if you hid F). In the Home tab’s Cells group, click Format and Hide & Unhide. Choose Unhide Columns.

I need an extra column in the middle of my data, but I’m worried about disrupting all my formulas when everything shifts to accommodate the new column.

To insert a column, click the column heading to the right of where you want the new one. Then right-click and choose Insert. Note that if you select more than one column, Excel inserts the same number of new columns. Excel handles formula adjustments for you by automatically updating formulas to reflect the addition (or deletion) of columns and rows.

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