Excel Tip #10 - Change a Single Spaced Sheet into a Double Spaced Spreadsheet

Three Step Process to Instantly Adding a Space Between Rows in a Table

Within Excel, there is more than one way of adding spaces between row in a data set. We can manually add blank rows or we can use a shortcut such as holding Ctrl Shift and +. These two methods are absolutely acceptable if you only have a couple of rows. But what if you had a hundred or a thousand rows? It would take you a long time to change your single spaced sheet into double spaced. Luck for you, there is a more efficient way to do this. 

Suppose your end goal is illustrated below (ignore column F for now). You want each row of data to be separated by a blank space. This could be because you want your data to look cleaner or just easier to read. 

You started with the below data set. One way of spacing this out is by adding numbers to the right or left side of the data set. In the below spreadsheet picture, we've labeled each row of data from one to eight. Then just below it repeat the same numbers. 

After you've finished labeling the rows as such, find the filter button which is under 'Sort & Filter'. You can then either sort from smallest to largest or largest to smallest. Depending on how you sort, your list could be flipped or remain the same. Pick smallest to largest and if that is how you labeled it, then it will look as if you just add extra rows to your original data set. 

After that you should get your double spaced spreadsheet. You can now delete the column you added and your sheet will still be spaced. And that is how you change a single spaced sheet into a double spaced spreadsheet!