Multi line merged cell - adapting to different size input - possible?

[David Smithz]

I have a cell that is auto populated from another worksheet. It is a cell
that contains what can be quite a long paragraph of text which can contain
multiple lines that have been input using (ALT - return).

The cell has been set as a merged cell of 10 rows (to allow for space if the
source data is across multiple lines).
I want this cell to be able to cope with whatever size of data the source
data contains). At the moment I have just left 10 lines available, but if
the source data cell contains information that is over 10 lines then this
will be cut off from the destination cell.

I want a way of handling this so in the cases where there is more then 10
lines, the destination cell pushes down all the rows below it to accommodate
for the extra space requirements.

In an ideal world, I could just use both shrink to fit and Wrap text,
because then if it is over 10 lines, the fonts just reduce in size to allow
for more, but if I turn this on, I have to turn off wrap text, which is
necessary because the contents is in a mutli line cell.

I do hope this makes sense and I look forward to any suggestions how one can
deal with this.

Kind regards

Dave

 

[Gord Dibben]

David

Merged cells do not hold any more text then any one original single cell.

Excel Help on "limits" or "specifications" reveals that Excel will allow
32,767 characters to be entered in a cell.

However, it goes on to state that "only 1024 characters will be visible or can
be printed"

To work around this limitation, stick a few ALT + ENTERs in at appropriate
spots, about every 100 characters..

The ALT + ENTER forces a line-feed and expands the 1024 limit.

How far is not really known. Just experiment.

.........From Dave Peterson..........

I put this formula in A1:
="xxx"& REPT(REPT("asdf ",25)&CHAR(10),58)&"yyy"

And adjusted the columnwidth, rowheight and font size and I got about 7300
characters to print ok.

.........End Dave P.................

Failing that, use a Text Box to store the text or MS Word which is a word
processing application, unlike Excel which is not.


Gord Dibben Excel MVP

I have a cell that is auto populated from another worksheet. It is a cell
that contains what can be quite a long paragraph of text which can contain
multiple lines that have been input using (ALT - return).

The cell has been set as a merged cell of 10 rows (to allow for space if the
source data is across multiple lines).
I want this cell to be able to cope with whatever size of data the source
data contains). At the moment I have just left 10 lines available, but if
the source data cell contains information that is over 10 lines then this
will be cut off from the destination cell.

I want a way of handling this so in the cases where there is more then 10
lines, the destination cell pushes down all the rows below it to accommodate
for the extra space requirements.

In an ideal world, I could just use both shrink to fit and Wrap text,
because then if it is over 10 lines, the fonts just reduce in size to allow
for more, but if I turn this on, I have to turn off wrap text, which is
necessary because the contents is in a mutli line cell.

I do hope this makes sense and I look forward to any suggestions how one can
deal with this.

Kind regards

Dave

Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP