Windows

Add A Line Break To A Cell In Excel 2007

Posted by on May 17, 2007 | 11 Comments

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 moves the cursor to 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.

[tags]Microsoft Office, Excel, Microsoft Excel, Excel 2007[/tags]

  • http://none Bill Ardis

    great excel tip, thank you!

  • Trevel

    A lot of programs are like that — or Ctrl-Enter. Any time you want to put in a line break, try one of those. I tend to use it a lot in instant messaging.

  • http://www.nixforce.com Glenn

    Thanks!!!

    I was setting up a weekly report and could not figure it out!!
    You saved me a lot of time and my keyboard

  • Lobo1969

    Your just saved my day. Thank you very much for the great tip.

  • Stephanie

    This kind of works, but it doesn’t if that cell spans multiple columns. Try it out. It will force the Wrap Text property on the cell, then when you go to take that off, it takes away the line break as well. Anyone know the work around? It’s only in Excel 2007 as far as I can tell.

  • Emily

    Press cntrl + option + enter. This worked for me.

  • http://www.firstintouch.com/ Michael

    Thank you, this was exactly what i was looking for.

  • Pete

    Thank you Emily, Cntrl+Option+Enter worked, but I swear I could hit Alt+Enter in the past in 2007. And the cell I’m trying to use doesn’t go across columns… thoughts?

  • Vics

    Use the ALT(Only the right one to SPACE-BAR) + ENTER, to add a line break in cell.

  • Manivannan

    Ctrl +enter for open office

  • Gajendra

    Great help. Thanks. I say minor points hold their own importance and can ease the work by a significant margin.