Word wrap issues within merged cells

[Steph]

I am trying to find a problem in a corporate Excel sheet for my boss. I
tried re-inventing the form from scratch, but have the same issue.

This form is a required daily log for field operations. It has the required
normal entries such as date, time, shift, job name ect. at the top. Below
this are several merged cells. There is the first large box to enter all the
"work performed" for the day, and then to the right is a long column for
temperature, equipment...I hope I giving you a visual.

The problem is with the large box that has about 7 columns by 30 rows merged
together. Word wrap is on, the text starts at the top, font 10. For a test
I just started typing from a book, hitting alt/enter for a new paragraph. I
can see ALL of my text as I am typing, and all the sentences are wrapping.
As soon as I click outside of the merge box to work on another entry, about
half way down all my information stops wrapping. So I see the first few
paragraphs that are wrapped, then each paragraph after that looks like a
one-line paragraph. When I look at print preview, I see the same thing.
When I click back inside the box, all words are visible and wrapped. So my
boss has to go in and insert a alt/enter at the end of each group of words so
it will force a wrap. It's very time consuming for something that has to be
done on a daily basis.

He gave me a challenge, I have tried everything. Can someone help?

Thanks!
Steph

 

[John Smith]

I am trying to find a problem in a corporate Excel sheet for my boss. I
tried re-inventing the form from scratch, but have the same issue.

This form is a required daily log for field operations. It has the
required
normal entries such as date, time, shift, job name ect. at the top. Below
this are several merged cells. There is the first large box to enter all
the
"work performed" for the day, and then to the right is a long column for
temperature, equipment...I hope I giving you a visual.

The problem is with the large box that has about 7 columns by 30 rows
merged
together. Word wrap is on, the text starts at the top, font 10. For a
test
I just started typing from a book, hitting alt/enter for a new paragraph.
I
can see ALL of my text as I am typing, and all the sentences are wrapping.
As soon as I click outside of the merge box to work on another entry,
about
half way down all my information stops wrapping. So I see the first few
paragraphs that are wrapped, then each paragraph after that looks like a
one-line paragraph. When I look at print preview, I see the same thing.
When I click back inside the box, all words are visible and wrapped. So
my
boss has to go in and insert a alt/enter at the end of each group of words
so
it will force a wrap. It's very time consuming for something that has to
be
done on a daily basis.

He gave me a challenge, I have tried everything. Can someone help?

Thanks!
Steph

Have you got the Word Wrap box checked when you select "Merge Cells" in the
format cells dialog box?

 

[Dave Peterson]

Try adding alt-enters (to force new lines within the cell) every 80-100
characters.

 

[Gord Dibben]

Could be a couple of issues.

You can enter 32767 characters in a cell.

You will see them all in the formula bar.

In a cell only 1024 are displayed or printed.

Adding an Alt + Enter every 100 characters will increase that displayed
limit.

You may need more frequent Alt + Enters

Also note that merged cells will not autofit even if wrap text is enabled.

You need code to autofit them.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[evilbungle]

Hi, I have a similar issue,

I am populating an Excel spreadsheet from an Access Database, I am copying
accross just under 3000 charachters, To get them from Access I trim them into
variables and then paste them into Sheet2 on my spreadsheet. (About 250 per
Cell in a column A1:A10)

I then use the & to combine them =Sheet2!A1&Sheet2!A2 ... &Sheet2!A10 the
first 11 rows of my merged cells box are wrapped but then it stops, Is there
anyway to get them to wrap, I can not add alt & Enter as the text is
populated automatically by the database.

Does anyone think there could be a solution to this issue that does not need
manual intervention.

Sorry for Asking my Question on a question but I think they may both need
the same solution.

 

[Gord Dibben]

Using the concatenation operator "&" does not create merged cells.

It simply combines text from your 11 cells into one cell.

Excel limits the viewable and printable text in one cell to about 1024
characters.

You may get away with adding your own linefeeds(Alt + Enter) in the formula.

=A1 & CHAR(10) & A2 & CHAR(10) & A3 & CHAR(10) etc.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP