Changing the Height of Worksheet Tabs

Cindy noted that when naming worksheet tabs, the width of the tabs varies based primarily on the name of the tab. She wonders if there is a way to increase the height of a worksheet tab.

This can't be done within Excel. You can, however, make some changes in Windows itself to help the tabs be just a bit higher. How you do this depends on the version of Windows you are using. If you are using Windows Vista you can follow these steps:

1. Right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose Personalize from the resulting Context menu. Windows displays the Personalization portion of the Control Panel.
2. Click Window Color and Appearance.
3. Click Open Classic Appearance Properties. Windows displays the Appearance Settings dialog box.
4. Click the Advanced button. Windows displays the Advanced Appearance dialog box.
5. In the Item drop-down list, select Scrollbar. (You can also choose the Scrollbar item simply by clicking the vertical scroll bar in the image at the top of the Display Properties dialog box.)
6. Increase the value in the Size text box, just to the right of the Item drop-down list. Try a value that is about 28 or larger.
7. Click on OK to close the Advanced Appearance dialog box.
8. Click on OK to close the Appearance Settings dialog box.

The steps are a bit different if you are using Windows 7:

1. Right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose Personalize from the resulting Context menu. Windows displays the Personalization portion of the Control Panel.
2. Click Window Color.
3. Click the Advanced Appearance Settings link. Windows displays the Window Color and Appearance dialog box.
4. In the Item drop-down list, select Scrollbar. (You can also choose the Scrollbar item simply by clicking the vertical scroll bar in the image at the top of the Display Properties dialog box.)
5. Increase the value in the Size text box, just to the right of the Item drop-down list. Try a value that is about 28 or larger.
6. Close any open dialog boxes.

If you are using a different version of Windows you may need to poke around in the Control Panel until you can find the setting that is changed in steps 4 and 5. (It may take some digging, but you'll find it eventually.) Understand that adjusting this setting will provide a larger worksheet tab height, but it will also affect all the other programs you run on your system—their scrollbar sizes will be larger as well.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8564) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Changing the Height of Worksheet Tabs.