Preventing text from going past cell in Excel

[jent]

I have the latest version of Excel 2011 and I was wondering how to make it so the text doesn't spill over into the next empty cell.

I searched the question and some people recommend going to Format -> Cells -> Alignment and choosing "Fill," but if I type a single character in a cell, that formatting option fills the entire cell with that character repeatedly.

Is there a way to achieve this without having to manipulate the next cell with a whitespace?

[GGJstudios]

Format > Cells > Alignment > Wrap text

[jent]

Originally Posted by GGJstudios

Format > Cells > Alignment > Wrap text

What about if I don't want to push the cell downwards either? I want it to remain the same height and width regardless of whatever text I input and however long that text is.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by jent

What about if I don't want to push the cell downwards either? I want it to remain the same height and width regardless of whatever text I input and however long that text is.

The text has to go somewhere. If you don't want it visible in the next cell, put something in that cell, even a non-visible character.

[James Craner]

Click on the top left hand corner of your worksheet to select the whole sheet.
Right click on the worksheet and select 'Format Cells'.
Select the 'Vertical text alignment to 'Justify' and then OK.
Select the whole of your worksheet once more.
Select 'Format' from the top tool bar and select 'Row' then 'Height'.
Set the row height to 0.53cm which is standard or anything you like.
This will contain the text within the cell without overlapping or word wrapping.

You don't have to select the whole sheet, but you will need to manually set a height for all rows that you want to fix, and Column Width and justify for all columns that you want to fix.

GGJstudios is the easiest method to use in practice, but my way is basically telling excel to used a fixed column width and row height.