Part I: Getting Started with Excel
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Choosing vertical alignment options .......................................................................
Vertical alignment options typically aren’t used as often as the horizontal alignment options. In
fact, these settings are useful only if you’ve adjusted row heights so that they’re considerably taller
than normal.Vertical alignment options available in the Format Cells dialog box arel Top: Aligns the cell contents to the top of the cell. Also available on the Ribbon.l (^) Center: Centers the cell contents vertically in the cell. Also available on the Ribbon.
l Bottom: Aligns the cell contents to the bottom of the cell. Also available on the Ribbon.
l (^) 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.
l Distributed: Distributes the text evenly vertically in the cell. This setting seems to have
the same effect as Justify.
Wrapping or shrinking text to fit the cell ................................................................
If you have text too wide to fit the column width but 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 control 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 without 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. Usually, it’s easier to make this adjustment manually.Note
If you apply Wrap Text formatting to a cell, you can’t use the Shrink to Fit formatting. n
Merging worksheet cells to create additional text space ...........................................
Excel also enables you 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 6.7 contains four sets of merged cells. For example, range
C2:I2 has been merged into a single cell, and so has range J2:P2. In addition, ranges B4:B8 and
B9:B13 have also been merged. In the latter two cases, the text direction has been changed (see
“Displaying text at an angle,” later in this chapter).