Efficiently Removing Multiple Hash Symbols From Your Excel Spreadsheet

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When you are busy working in Microsoft Excel, the last thing you need is to have to continuously fix or remove errors. With that in mind, today’s SuperUser Q&A post helps a reader quickly and easily remove pesky number sign errors from his Microsoft Excel sheets.

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.

The Question

SuperUser reader M.Hesse wants to know how to get rid of all the number sign (#) errors in Microsoft Excel at the same time:

When using Microsoft Excel, I usually solve ##### errors by double-clicking the offending column headers. This can become a bit tedious, however, when there are multiple columns displaying the errors at the same time. Is there a quicker way to resolve this?

How do you get rid of all the number sign errors in Microsoft Excel at the same time?

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The Answer

SuperUser contributors Justin, Raystafarian, and boflynn have the answer for us. First up, Justin:

You can auto-size multiple columns at the same time by double-clicking, just like you do with a single column.

Step 1. Select Multiple Columns

Either select all columns by clicking on the arrow in the upper-left corner:

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Or click and drag to select a smaller range of columns:

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Step 2. Auto-Size Selected Columns

Now double-click on the right boundary of any of the selected columns when your cursor changes to the column-resizing double arrow:

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Followed by the answer from Raystafarian:

Yes, on the ribbon go to Home, Cells, and click Format. Once there, you can choose to AutoFit either the Row Height and/or Column Width.

With our final answer from boflynn:

For keyboard ninjas, here is a technique that does not require a mouse:

1. Select All - Control + A or Control + Shift + 8.
2. AutoFit Columns - Hold Alt, then press in sequence O, C, A. You can let go of Alt after you press O.

This feature, called Office Access Keys , is a holdover from the pre-ribbon days. If you have memorized the old menus, you can continue to access them this way. In this case, the navigation was:

1. Format (O)
2. Column (C)
3. AutoFit (A)

Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here .