Buzz
You can add charts, tables, images, and text boxes to a document in Microsoft Word, and the measurement units on the ruler help you align various elements within the document and manage the height, width of cells, columns, and rows in tables. If you prefer not to use inches as the default unit, you can switch to other units such as cm, mm, points, or picas.
Changing Measurement Scale in Word, Excel, PowerPoint
You can apply the following method to any version of Office, including Office 365:
- Open Word and click on the File > Options tab.
- In the Word Options window, select the Advanced section from the left-hand menu.
- Scroll down to the Display section, choose the desired measurement unit from the Show measurements in units of dropdown list, and click OK.
You can change the measurement units on the Ruler from inches to cm, mm, points, and picas. The Point unit is used when measuring pixels, while Pica is commonly used to describe fixed vertical and horizontal dimensions in newspaper, magazine, advertising, or newsletter design. A Pica is approximately equal to 1/6 inch, or 12 points.
These steps can also be performed similarly in any Microsoft Office application, including Excel, PowerPoint... The options are available under the Advanced > Display section.
Under the Display section, you have two additional options:
- Show pixels for HTML features - Use pixels as the default measurement unit in dialog boxes related to HTML features.
- Display measurements based on character width - Useful for printing.
If you're unsure how to display the ruler in Word, refer to the article on showing Ruler here.
