Wrapping text for flexible cell layout

By Neil Shorney

In Excel level 1, we look at techniques to re-size columns in large database downloads to make the data easier to read. One of these techniques is wrapping text. Perhaps you have a large amount of data in a cell, for example a postal address. In your data set, you want to be able to see the full content of the cell, but you don't want a column so wide that it becomes unmanageable. The solution to this problem is the wrap text function.

To wrap text in a column, highlight the full column then right-click in the selected cells and choose Format cells. On the second tab (Alignment), tick the Wrap text box then press OK. Instead of the column re-sizing to accommodate the data, the rows will increase their height and the text will be split over several lines within the column width you need.

We look at more cell formatting in Excel level 1.