Actual Excel Row Height Units

merrymonk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am using Excel 2007 on a Windows XP PC. I am working with metric settings so that for example the margins are given in cm.
In the Excel Macros with VBA book by Steven Roman (O’Reilly) it says that row Height property is given in points.
I believe that there are 72 points to an inch.
For one row the Row Height given in the Row Height window is 20.
If this is measured in points I think that the height should be 7.05mm.
However, when I print the spreadsheet out the row measures (close to) 4mm.
What are the units given in the Excel row height?

Comment on Actual Excel Row Height Units

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Re: Actual Excel Row Height Units by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Mar 02, 2011 at 14:52 UTC
The width and heights of screen elements in Windows are (usually, there are exceptions), specified and reported in terms of "Dialog Units". These are abstract, device independent units that are derived from the average width and height of the currently installed system font. A dialog unit width is 1/4 of the average width of the characters in the current system font. A dialog unit height is 1/8 of the average height of the characters in the current system font. For the reasoning behind this apparently weird arrangement, read Layout Metrics. Carefully. At least 3 times :) Loathe it as I do, it really does make sense. For a heap of further information on how to convert from these abstract units to other definitive units, gooogle for site:microsoft.com "dialog units" conversion. Read, read & read. But read the above "Layout metrics" reference first, as many times as it takes for it to sink in. Because until you twig to why it is done this way, everything else will just bug you. Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply]
Re: Actual Excel Row Height Units by marto (Cardinal) on Mar 02, 2011 at 14:32 UTC
What does this have to do with Perl? I suggest looking at the Microsoft Excel documentation or MSDN.	[reply]
Re^2: Actual Excel Row Height Units by merrymonk (Hermit) on Mar 02, 2011 at 14:53 UTC
Fair point! Also I have just discovered that the settings meant that all of the spreadsheet was 'squeezed' to fit on one page. Therefore my question is not relevant any more.	[reply]
Re: Actual Excel Row Height Units by Anonymous Monk on Jul 23, 2013 at 15:36 UTC
Question: Is there a rule of thumb table for excel 2010 to outline the following 12 pt font is 15 point row height 11 pt font is XX point row height etc	[reply]