When you work in spreadsheets, you likely think of adding text into individual cells. But you can actually add text boxes that sit atop other content. You can move these around your worksheets, and they don’t impact your other data. Let’s learn how to add a text box in Microsoft Excel.
How to Add a Text Box in Excel
Text boxes in Excel offer several key advantages. They’re the perfect way to add text to your spreadsheets, without using space in actual cells. This is a good option if you need to add a descriptive caption to rows or columns of data, for example. Text boxes can be dragged around your sheet, and they won’t displace the data underneath them. Think of text boxes as layers that sit above your existing Excel spreadsheet content.
To add a text box in Excel, begin by going to the Insert tab on the ribbon. On the right side of the Insert menu bar, click on the Text dropdown. You’ll see several options appear. The one you want is Text Box. Click on it to activate Excel’s Insert Text Box feature.
You’ll see a box containing the letter A now attached to your mouse cursor. Move your cursor to the point on your spreadsheet where you want to insert a text box. Remember, it can be right on top of other content – nothing contained in cells will move or change.
Click once, and Excel will add a text box into the location you chose. You can begin typing in your own words. The white boxes on each side and corner of the text box help you size and scale the box itself. Simply click and drag them to expand or reduce the size of your text box. You can also click and drag on one of the sides to move the text box to a new location on your sheet.
As you can see, it’s easy to add helpful descriptive text boxes in Microsoft Excel.
Save Themes in Excel