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Preventing text from going past cell in Excel

jent

jent

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 31, 2010
893
568
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?
 
jent

jent

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 31, 2010
893
568
GGJstudios said:
Format > Cells > Alignment > Wrap text
Click to expand...
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

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
jent said:
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.
Click to expand...
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_C

James_C

macrumors 68030
Sep 13, 2002
2,817
1,822
Bristol, UK
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.
 
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M

macintologist

macrumors 6502a
May 3, 2004
637
878
James Craner said:
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.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I used your tip today and it worked great!
 
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