Chapter 5: Formatting Worksheets
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If you want to experiment with text alignment settings, this workbook is available at this book’s website
at http://www.wiley.com/go/excel2019bible. The file is named text alignment.xlsx.Choosing vertical alignment options
Vertical alignment options typically aren’t used as often as horizontal alignment options.
In fact, these settings are useful only if you’ve adjusted row heights so that they’re consid-
erably taller than normal.Here are the vertical alignment options available in the Format Cells dialog box:Top Aligns the cell contents to the top of the cell. This is also available on the Ribbon.
Center Centers the cell contents vertically in the cell. This is also available on the Ribbon.
Bottom Aligns the cell contents to the bottom of the cell. This is also available on the
Ribbon. This option is the default vertical alignment.
Justify Justifies the text vertically in the cell; this option is applicable only if the cell
is formatted as wrapped text and uses more than one line. This setting can be used to
increase the line spacing.
Distributed Distributes the text evenly vertically in the cell.Wrapping or shrinking text to fit the cell
If you have text too wide to fit the column width but you don’t want that text to spill over
into adjacent cells, you can use either the Wrap Text option or the Shrink to Fit option to
accommodate that text. The Wrap Text option is also available on the Ribbon.The Wrap Text option displays the text on multiple lines in the cell, if necessary. Use this
option to display lengthy headings without having to make the columns too wide and with-
out reducing the size of the text.The Shrink to Fit option reduces the size of the text so that it fits into the cell without
spilling over to the next cell. The times that this command is useful seem to be rare. Unless
the text is just slightly too long, the result is almost always illegible.If you apply Wrap Text formatting to a cell, you can’t use the Shrink to Fit formatting.
Merging worksheet cells to create additional text space
A handy formatting option is the ability to merge two or more cells. When you merge cells, you
don’t combine the contents of cells. Rather, you combine a group of cells into a single cell that
occupies the same space. The worksheet shown in Figure 5.7 contains four sets of merged cells.
Range C2:I2 has been merged into a single cell and so have ranges J2:P2, B4:B8, and B9:B13.
In the latter two cases, the text orientation has also been changed (see “Displaying text at an
angle” later in this chapter).