My guess is that you do it to make the spreadsheet look a little nicer when you print it out. But 1) this really limits the ability to quickly navigate the sheet with the ctl arrow buttons 2) it increases the chance for errors, especially when linking to other sheets 3) isn’t is time consuming to create and maintain alternating 7 and 0.5 width columns? 4) and most importantly, you could get the same effect by just making all of the columns with data a little wider Is there something I’m missing here?
I think they are compensating for something.
I do this, actually. I use the blank columns to jump quickly between important columns. They are also useful as a spacer between different sorts of data. For instance, the left side might be a database query and the right side might be formulas based on the query rows.
its actually grounds for murder
Hello Mister Walrus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I do this, actually. I use the blank columns to > jump quickly between important columns. They are > also useful as a spacer between different sorts of > data. For instance, the left side might be a > database query and the right side might be > formulas based on the query rows. This is fine. White space is good. But I’m talking about taking a spreadsheet with annual data and 12 column widths, and taking the time to convert each column with data to 7 width and then inserting 0.5 width columns between each of the years.
It takes all of what, 15 seconds to do?
SMIRK Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It takes all of what, 15 seconds to do? And all of about 5 seconds to undo… Walrus’ use is actually extremely helpful but if I come across something like you I just remove them.
Waddya mean, “You People.”???
I would create spacer columns for two reasons: 1. to classify/separate different sets of data 2. a free column to add another input, sub-calc, or comment. That way you don’t need to insert columns, which could cause cell reference issues (lookups, offsets, index match).