Sometimes, your text won’t fit nicely on a single line. In those cases, you might want to wrap your text so that it fits in a single cell. Let’s learn how to wrap text in Excel.
How to Wrap Text in Excel
Let’s look at the example below. The column labeled “Item Description” is a bit too wide, given that the items in the list are pretty short in width. This is a good opportunity to wrap the text, then downsize the column width.
Let’s click on Wrap Text in the Alignment section on the ribbon. You’ll see the text re-flow and make the row taller – instead of wider!
This is all that you have to do to wrap text in Excel. When your columns are getting a bit wide, wrap around the text and resize the column accordingly.
An Alternative to Wrap Text in Excel
The key idea when you wrap text in Excel is to make text fit in a relatively limited space by making the column taller. In some cases, your space may be extremely limited in width, but not in height. In those cases, making your text vertical is a great way to use the space.
Check out the image below to see what I mean. The “COGS” column feels a bit crowded, But notice that we have space above and below “COGS.” This is a great time to change to Vertical Text.
To change your text to being vertical, find the Alignment section on the ribbon, and click on the dropdown. Choose Vertical Text, and you’ll see the text shift to being typed vertically. Now, you’re using the full cell to show what you need to show.
As a finishing step, click on the Center alignment as you see below.
This approach isn’t technically a text wrap, but it accomplishes the same thing: arranging your text to make the best possible use of the space. Keep it in mind if your cell has space on the top and bottom.
Subscript in Excel