Separate the text into two lines in a cell
To present your report professionally, you need to separate the description into two lines in a cell, i.e. “Total Revenue” in one line and “($ ‘000)” in the second line within the same cell (B5). How would you do it?One solution used by most excel users is to format the cell with the “wrap text” option and then adjust the column so that the width is just sufficient to display the description “Total Revenue”. This will cause the text “($ ‘000)” to flow to the next line. This method is not reliable
because the presentation will appear that way only in the creator’s computer. If this excel file is to be sent to another person, the word Revenue in the line “Total Revenue” may run off to the next line if the users uses another resolution. Or the text “($” may move to the first line.
The above method also restrict the user from adjusting the column width at will. To have a wider column, many users would have to insert sufficient space between “Total Revenue” and “($’000)”. A fair amount of time is spent just for this purpose.
Unknown to many users, the description can be maintained in two different lines within the cell under all conditions. All we need to is to use the “ALT” key and “ENTER” key together. Here is how:
1) Place the cursor after the word “Revenue” (either by editing the cell using the function key F2 OR point the mouse button at the formula bar immediately after the word “Revenue” and click on the left mouse button).
2) Press the button “ALT” together with the “ENTER” key. The text is immediately separated into two lines in a cell. Hit the “ENTER” key to confirm the change.
Note: Depending on where you place the cursor, the space between between the word “Revenue” and ($’000) may skew the word “Revenue” to the left because the space is on the first line or skew the description “($’000)” to the right is the space is on the second line. To avoid this from happening, we can remove the space as shown “Total Revenue($’000)” prior to splitting the text into 2 lines. Then proceed with the split using “ALT” and “ENTER”.
