how to get Libre Office to adjust row height to accommodate text entry?

Solution 1:

Using LibreOffice Calc 5.4.4.2 on OS X, I found I had to do four things to set every row to its optimum height:

Select all cells
In the "Format" menu, turn on "Format/Text/Wrap Text"
In the "Format" menu, choose "Format/Rows/Optimal Height...", and in the resulting dialog set "Add" to "0.0" and turn on the "Default" checkbox
Add and then remove an empty column.

That last step sometimes isn't necessary, but at times LibreOffice will refuse to recalculate the row heights until you dope-slap it into submission.

You need to do both:

Format cells.... / Alignment / Wrap text automatically

and

Select the concerning cells or entire rows: right click on selected row numbers and choose 'optimal row height'

Part of the solution I found here.