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Making Text Fit in Excel

If there is nothing in the adjacent cell when you enter a long string of text into a cell, Excel displays the full string of text. However, if the adjacent cell is full, Excel truncates the display of your text. (Note that this affects only the display - not the actual contents of the cell.

In the example below, the same text has been entered into cell A1 and cell A2. While the text is fully displayed in A1, it has been truncated in A2 because a number has been entered in B2. (Note that the full text of A2 is displayed in the Formula Bar next to the gray equal sign.)

There are a number of ways to change the width of the cells:

• Set the width to fixed number of characters using the Column/Width command found in the Format Menu.
• Choose Column/AutoFit from the Format Menu to automatically format the column to the width of the widest entry in the column.
• Hover the mouse between the lines of the column headers. When the cursor becomes a two-directional arrow, click and drag to make the column as wide or narrow as you want.
• To quickly AutoFit a column, double-click when you see the two-directional arrow.

If you'd rather change the size of the text, there are several ways to do that too:

• Format the font to a smaller size (using the tools on the toolbar.)
• Click Format, then Cell to display the dialog box. Click the alignment tab and work with the Text
• Control options to change the alignment of the text display. Options include Wrap Text (display on more than one line in the same cell), Shrink to Fit, and Merge Cells.
• You can also shrink your text to fit into your cell by checking the Shrink to Fit checkbox. To find the checkbox, choose Cells from the Format Menu, then click on the Alignment Tab.
   

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