How to use Wrap Text and Merge Cells Formatting to Improve Excel Worksheet Appearance

Wrap Text for Labels

Wrap Text for Labels

In this tutorial – the second in my series explaining how a worksheet, that my accountant friend Alan Friedman created, works – I focus on improving the formatting for the column labels and other descriptive text.

Wrap Text for Labels

In my experience, I find that many accountants and other financial managers have not mastered the basics of formatting an Excel Worksheet. It seems that they are still using “old fashioned IBM typewriter tricks” when it comes time to create the labels for the columns of data in their spreadsheet.

Case in Point: Using two or more vertical cells to type “Cost of” (Return key on Computer) “Goods Sold.” This “old fashioned” process will lead to multiple problems. For example, improper sorting and filtering of data.

In this tutorial, I demonstrate how to use the Wrap Text command to format a single-cell text label. You will also learn how to use the Keyboard Shortcut Alt + Enter to control where your text “breaks” when wrapping text.

Merge Cells Across Columns

When you have a long, descriptive text – e.g. Your Company Name – it is best to type this into a single cell and then use the Merge Cells Command. Now, when you double-click between Column Letters to automatically expand the width of a column, only the “um-merged” labels in the column are extended in width.

Additional Resources for Tutorial

You can learn “The 50 Best Tips for Excel 2007” on my DVD-ROM. Visit – http://shop.thecompanyrocks.com/50-best-tips-for-excel-2007/ – to learn more about this.

Click on this link to download the Excel Worksheet – created by Alan Friedman – that I use in this lesson.

Watch Tutorial in High Definition

Follow this link to watch this tutorial in High Definition on my YouTube Channel – DannyRocksExcels

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Excel 2003 Basics – Data Entry

A viewer wrote in to request a few videos that cover “The Basics” in Excel 2003. In this video lesson, I cover the basics of data entry.

Even if you have been using Excel for a number of years, I guarantee that you will pick up one or two tips in this video that will save you time and make you more productive.

Here are the steps to follow in this video lesson:

  1. Excel aligns “text” entries to the left-side of the cell. “Numeric” entries (including Dates & Times) are aligned to the right-side of the cell.
  2. All calculations in Excel MUST start with the =sign. This includes Formulas and Functions. Write formulas that refer to other cells. (Avoid writing formulas that only use constant values.)
  3. When we input data in a cell and press the ENTER key, Excel accepts the entry and makes the cell that is down one row in the column the “Active Cell.”
  4. To input data in the cells of the same row – and continue to use the ENTER key – first select the range of cells in the row.
  5. You can also select a range of cells in adjacent rows and columns. Excel goes down the cells in the column first and then moves automatically to the top row in the next column in your selection.

News! My DVD, “The 50 Best Tips for Excel 2007” is now availabe to purchase. I invite you to visit my online bookstore for more details.

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