Spacer – Free Google Add-On That Spaces Rows by Column Category (Updated January 2022)

What is Spacer?

Spacer is a Free Google Add-On that creates row spaces by column categories.

I use it as an academic administrator to create a space or two at the end of each class section to create a visual break between sections. This makes it easier for my staff to quickly identify class sections.

You can find Spacer at the Google Workspace Marketplace.

What can Spacer do?

Spacer can:

• Automatically detect the width of your columns.
• Allow you to select a column with the categories you want to use to space your data.
• Set the height of your header – so that is not spaced too.
• Set the thickness of your spaces.
• Set the color of your spaces
• Set starting and end position of your color filler.

How to use Spacer

After Installation

Before You Start:

1. Before you start, create a Google Sheet with the data in it you want to space.
2. Select All the data.
3. Go to the menu bar and select: Data>Sort Range...   and select the column you want to sort by. This will be the column you will use to space your data by the categories in that column.

Running Spacer:

1. In a Google Sheet, select the Add-Ons menu. (Now Extensions menu)
   
2. Select: Spacer>Create Spaces
3. A sidebar will appear to the right.
   
4. Choose the column you want to use to Space your data.
5. Choose how high your header is.
6. Chose how thick or deep you want your header to be.
7. If you want a colour, select a colour that you want to add to your spaces.
8. Select where you want to start the colour and end the colour.
9. Click: Submit
10. If you are not happy with the colour, space, colour width or made a mistake, simply click: UNDO

Troubleshooting

I keep getting the following popup:

This is because the starting value of your Color Width is greater than your End value:

An Example

I have a list of people with their favourite colour and fruit. Let’s say I want to sort the Google Sheet by favourite colour (Fav Color) and put a space at the end of each colour category to make it easier to read.

My data looks like this:

To space this data we must do the following:

1. Select all the data: ctrl+shift + a

2. Sort the data by column B. Select: Data> Sort range

3. Click the: Data has a header row  tick box. Select the column: Fav Color. Then click the Sort button.
   
4. Your data is now sorted by favourite colour:
   
5. Time to use the Spacer. Select: Add-ons > Spacer > Create spaces

6. Spacer will open at Sidebar on the right:
   
7. We want to space our data by Fav Color which is column B. For Column, select: B

8. We have a single Row Header so we can leave the header selection at 1:  
9. We want to give our spaces a thickness of 2 rows:
   
10. Next, we choose a colour. Let’s choose purple. A colour picker will pop up (the picker may vary depending on your system) select the colour and click: OK:                             
11. This is the result:
    
12. Now choose where to start and finish the colour fill for the space. I’ll start it at column A and end it at column E.
    
13. Finally click Submit:
14. This will be the result:
    

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