Add A Line Break To Your Cell (Excel 2002/2003)
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In most word applications, pressing Enter moves the cursor to the next line. This is not the case in Excel, which at times seems to have a mind of its own. When you press Enter in Excel, it does not add a line break within a cell. Instead, it places the cursor in the cell below.
If you’re rather new to Excel, this can become a bit of an annoyance as you try to enter in data. The trick to this is that if you want to add a line break within a cell, press Alt + Enter, instead of just Enter.
10 Comments
Alma
November 29th, 2007
at 3:56pm
You have no idea how much I love you for telling me this. I was losing my mind trying to jump to the next line..
Seriously, Thank you so much.
Michelle Torres
January 3rd, 2008
at 7:45am
Yes, thanks so much for this tip! It’s been a while since I’ve used Excel, so when I tried to do this recently, I couldn’t for the life of me remember how. You’re a lifesaver. :)
Ira Eisenstein
January 6th, 2008
at 4:50pm
I read your answer to how to force a line break.
If you are using a Windows machine, it works.
If you are using a Macintosh, ALT-ENTER does the same as ENTER, jumps you to the next cell.
How do you do it in EXCEL for MACINTOSH?
Please email the answer (if there is one?!?!?) directly to iraeise@earthlink.net
Thanks!!!!
Lilin
February 1st, 2008
at 9:48am
Diana, you are so great!!!!!!!!! I have wanted this solution for years. Now I reached your answer. Thank you so much for telling us.
Elise
March 6th, 2008
at 9:55pm
OMG thank you!! couldn’t remember this from high school computer classes.
Macman
April 14th, 2008
at 12:17pm
Line break in Excel using a Mac is Ctrl+Command(Apple key)+Enter
AO
May 8th, 2008
at 9:27am
So, I know this is a “Window’s Fanatics” site, but to do this on a Mac, you have to use 3 buttons: “command+alt+return”
Craig
June 19th, 2008
at 7:29am
Thanks for that tip…I’d tried shift+enter and CRTL+Enter and then went hunting around for the answer….now back to work!
HashG
June 22nd, 2008
at 5:13pm
Ahhh! thank you and lotsa hugs diana huggins!
Sean
July 15th, 2008
at 6:27pm
Thanks a ton. I just took a class on excel and couldn’t remember that for the life of me!