cell alignment

[hjc]

When indenting text or numbers using the 'Indent' box on the 'Alignment' tab
in the 'Format Cells' dialog, is there a way to control the increment by
which the text is indented? Right now, even when I set the indent value to
1, the text is indented considerably more than if I simply add a space at the
end of the text.

Worse, the increment does not always seem to be consistent from spreadsheet
to spreadsheet or over time. I have one spreadsheet where the indentation is
approximately one-third of the cell width in a column with the width set to
12, yet the indent value is still set to 1! The format used to be o.k. in
this spreadsheet, so I'm not sure what has changed...I did not change the
indentation setting.

Any help that can be provided will be much appreciated -- thanks!

HJC

 

[Tyro]

Indenting the text by 1 should put 1 space at the left of the text if your
text is left aligned, one space to the right if your text is right aligned.
If your text is center aligned, indenting will change the text to left
aligned with 1 space of indenting. In Excel 2007.

Tyro
..

 

[Sandy Mann]

Like you, in XL97 I find that the indent is inconsistant inasmuchas it
apears to vary with the font size. With Arial 8 point it is fully two
characters indent but with 72 point it is only a fraction of a character.
The question mark help dialog box says:

"Indents cell contents from the left side of the cell.
Each increment in the Indent box is equivalent to the
width of one character."

I assume therefore that it is one character of a particular font, possibly
true type, as a particular point size and it does not alter with changing
font/points

--
HTH

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings

(e-mail address removed)
Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk

 

[hjc]

Thanks, Tyro, but it is the width of that one space (which is far more than I
think it should be) and whether there is a way to change it that I am asking
about.

Regards,
Hugh John

 

[hjc]

Thanks, Sandy. I cannot say I have noticed that the size of the indentation
changes with font, since I tend to use one font consistently. What triggered
my question was that, in one particular spreadsheet I had been using for some
time, the indentation suddenly tripled in width (more or less), without any
change to the number of 'characters' it was supposed to indent (still only
one.)

As an alternative, I have now learned that I can use a custom format to
indent as much or as little as I like (an underscore followed by a character
will indent by the width of the second character; include the pair to the
right or left of the numeric or text format, depending on which side you want
the indentation to appear; repeat the pair, including the underscore, to
indent by more than one character width), but I think that might end up being
more trouble than it's worth....

Regards,
Hugh John

 

[StrawberryBecky]

Exactly! In Excel 2007 I'm looking for a way to customize the indent
function, in a text box, no less, so that I get a small separation from the
border. Does the fact that this question has not been answered lead you to
believe that there is no way it can be done? The boss requires the text box,
or I'd figure out some other way to make it look right. Well, if anyone
finds out anything, I'll be watching. Thanks for asking the right question,
even if there isn't an answer!

 

[hjc]

Actually, I did find something that works, as I mentioned (but did not
elaborate) in my reply to Sandy...

You can use a custom format to do the trick. Click on 'Format | Cells...,'
choose the 'Number' tab and select 'Custom' from the Category pane. Then,
define the format you want and add an underscore followed by another
character at the beginning or the end (or both) of the format string. This
will cause the value to be indented (on either the left or the right,
respectively) by an amount equal to the width of the character following the
underscore.

Thus, for example, if you define _A0.00_0 as your custom format string, a
numeric value will be displayed to two decimal places, and it will be
indented by the width of an upper case 'A' if you left-align the cell, or by
the width of a zero if you right-align the cell. If you want to indent by
the width of two zeroes, no problem! Just use _0_0.

I have only played a little bit with different fonts and font sizes, but the
size of the indent seems to change with both.

Hope this helps!
Hugh John