Part I: Getting Started with Excel
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Forcing text to appear on a new line within a cell ............................................
If you have lengthy text in a cell, you can force Excel to display it in multiple lines within the cell:
Press Alt+Enter to start a new line in a cell.Note
When you add a line break, Excel automatically changes the cell’s format to Wrap Text. But unlike normal text
wrap, your manual line break forces Excel to break the text at a specific place within the text, which gives you
more precise control over the appearance of the text than if you rely on automatic text wrapping. n
Tip
To remove a manual line break, edit the cell and press Delete when the insertion point is located at the end of
the line that contains the manual line break. You won’t see any symbol to indicate the position of the manual
line break, but the text that follows it will move up when the line break is deleted. n
Using AutoCorrect for shorthand data entry ....................................................
You can use the AutoCorrect feature to create shortcuts for commonly used words or phrases. For
example, if you work for a company named Consolidated Data Processing Corporation, you can
create an AutoCorrect entry for an abbreviation, such as cdp. Then, whenever you type cdp, Excel
automatically changes it to Consolidated Data Processing Corporation.Excel includes quite a few built-in AutoCorrect terms (mostly common misspellings), and you can
add your own. To set up your custom AutoCorrect entries, access the Excel Options dialog box
(choose File ➪ Options) and click the Proofing tab. Then click the AutoCorrect Options button to
display the AutoCorrect dialog box. In the dialog box, click the AutoCorrect tab, check the option
labeled Replace Text as You Type, and then enter your custom entries. (Figure 2.6 shows an exam-
ple.) You can set up as many custom entries as you like. Just be careful not to use an abbreviation
that might appear normally in your text.Tip
Excel shares your AutoCorrect list with other Office applications. For example, any AutoCorrect entries you
created in Word also work in Excel. n
Entering numbers with fractions......................................................................
To enter a fractional value into a cell, leave a space between the whole number and the fraction. For
example, to enter 6^7 ⁄ 8 , enter 6 7/8 and then press Enter. When you select the cell, 6.875 appears in
the Formula bar, and the cell entry appears as a fraction. If you have a fraction only (for example,^1 ⁄ 8 ),
you must enter a zero first, like this — 0 1/8 — or Excel will likely assume that you’re entering a
date. When you select the cell and look at the Formula bar, you see 0.125. In the cell, you see^1 ⁄ 8.Simplifying data entry by using a form ............................................................
Many people use Excel to manage lists in which the information is arranged in rows. Excel offers a
simple way to work with this type of data through the use of a data entry form that Excel can cre-
ate automatically. This data form works with either a normal range of data, or with a range that has
been designated as a table (choose Insert ➪ Tables ➪ Table). Figure 2.7 shows an example.