excel help please, how to not have text in cell spill over to adjacent cell

[pennylane]

Sorry for making a thread over a question like this but I can't seem to find an answer to this.

Say I have a cell (call it A1) with text that's too longer than the cell is wide. If the cell to the right (B1) is blank, the text spills over into that cell. But if B1 has text in it, then the text in A1 no longer spills over. I have to highlight that cell to read the text.

Is there some way to make the text in a cell never spill over, even if the cell to the right of it is blank?

Thanks.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Yes, I know of one but it's not exactly pretty.

If you set the row height of the rows that your cells are in to a height that only allows you to see one line of text at that font size (Format>Rows>Height) and then format the cells to wrap text (Format>Cells>Wrap Text) then what you'll see is just the first line of the wrapped text.

Another way is to put =" " in the adjacent cells so that they look blank but aren't

There may be better ways...

 

[NeoV]

wrapped text is really the best way

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

You could put any empty string in the cell to the right.

 

[bruceb]

Use the Drawing Toolbar and then the Rectangle tool .. draw to size required, you can add text as needed and if wanted, show or not show the borders of the rectangle

 

[compman25]

Or you can hit Alt-Enter at the end of every line so it starts the next line under it in the same cell.

 

[pennylane]

Thanks for the replies. If there's no setting to check, it seems like wrapped text and/or making an empty string in the cell to the right is the way to go.

 

[MrBarnes]

Here's what you do:

1. Select the relevant cells for which you wish the text to be clipped to the column width.

2. Click "Format Cells" (e.g., through the menu or by right-clicking).

3. Under the Alignment tab, select the "Fill" option from the selections under Horizontal.

4. Click 'OK'.

The text in the cell should now be clipped to the column width as desired.

Note: I'm using Excel 2011 for Mac - the steps for Excel 2011 for Windows may be slightly different.

Marcus