cell text limits

[Randy Starkey]

Hi,

There seems to be a limit to text in a cell. Does anyone know of a way to
extend this, or get around it, or some other idea?

Thanks!

--Randy Starkey

 

[Gord Dibben]

Randy

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

Hi,

There seems to be a limit to text in a cell. Does anyone know of a way to
extend this, or get around it, or some other idea?

Thanks!

--Randy Starkey

Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Harlan Grove]

Randy Starkey wrote...

There seems to be a limit to text in a cell. Does anyone know of a way to
extend this, or get around it, or some other idea?

There's a display limit of around 1024 characters, but you can get
around it by inserting line feeds (decimal ASCII character code 10,
which can be produced by [Alt]+[Enter]) at every point where Excel
would wrap text anyway. At that point only the 32767 character limit on
text constants would apply (but you won't be able to view more than
15000 or so legibly on most computer screens, and that only when single
cells fill most of the screen *and* you're using tiny font sizes).
Formulas are subject to a 1024 char limit, and there's no way to change
that.

Note: 100 lines of 150 chars/line = 15000 characters (not including
line feeds). In most fonts chars are taller than they are wide, so
lines per screen is the main constraint.

 

[Randy Starkey]

Thanks both for the good info. I told our staff how to enter that way and
now we can see everything. Thanks!

--Randy

Randy Starkey wrote...

There seems to be a limit to text in a cell. Does anyone know of a way to
extend this, or get around it, or some other idea?

There's a display limit of around 1024 characters, but you can get
around it by inserting line feeds (decimal ASCII character code 10,
which can be produced by [Alt]+[Enter]) at every point where Excel
would wrap text anyway. At that point only the 32767 character limit on
text constants would apply (but you won't be able to view more than
15000 or so legibly on most computer screens, and that only when single
cells fill most of the screen *and* you're using tiny font sizes).
Formulas are subject to a 1024 char limit, and there's no way to change
that.

Note: 100 lines of 150 chars/line = 15000 characters (not including
line feeds). In most fonts chars are taller than they are wide, so
lines per screen is the main constraint.

 

[Randy Starkey]

Well, I spoke too soon. It seems like the auto-height feature doesn't work
past the 1024 limit. I can expand the row height manually, but the auto-fit
acts weirdly. It won't wrap the last line of text, and it cuts off at around
the 1024 mark. I really need all rows to be auto-fit height as each row gets
wildly different amounts of info.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

--Randy

Randy Starkey wrote...

There seems to be a limit to text in a cell. Does anyone know of a way to
extend this, or get around it, or some other idea?

There's a display limit of around 1024 characters, but you can get
around it by inserting line feeds (decimal ASCII character code 10,
which can be produced by [Alt]+[Enter]) at every point where Excel
would wrap text anyway. At that point only the 32767 character limit on
text constants would apply (but you won't be able to view more than
15000 or so legibly on most computer screens, and that only when single
cells fill most of the screen *and* you're using tiny font sizes).
Formulas are subject to a 1024 char limit, and there's no way to change
that.

Note: 100 lines of 150 chars/line = 15000 characters (not including
line feeds). In most fonts chars are taller than they are wide, so
lines per screen is the main constraint.

 

[Harlan Grove]

Randy Starkey wrote...

Well, I spoke too soon. It seems like the auto-height feature doesn't work
past the 1024 limit. I can expand the row height manually, but the auto-fit
acts weirdly. It won't wrap the last line of text, and it cuts off at around
the 1024 mark. I really need all rows to be auto-fit height as each row gets
wildly different amounts of info.

....

This is a known problem. You're going to have to determine what row
height you need to show the longest text cell SEPARAELY FOR EACH ROW,
then set explicit row heights accordingly. There's no alternative.

 

[Randy Starkey]

Randy Starkey wrote...
...

This is a known problem. You're going to have to determine what row
height you need to show the longest text cell SEPARAELY FOR EACH ROW,
then set explicit row heights accordingly. There's no alternative.

Bummer. I have this sheet locked for multiple viewers. I'll maybe have to
try to unlock some row height adjusts. Thanks. Hope it's fixed for the new
version...

 

[Randy Starkey]

One last related question...

Sometimes when I cut and paste text from another cell, it seems the pasted
text won't wrap in its new location. Any idea why?

Thanks!

--Randy

 

[Randy Starkey]

Anybody have any comments on this? There seems to be issues in Excel where
word wrap doesn't always work? Any known issues?

Thanks!

--Randy

 

[Randy Starkey]

Well, found the answer.
http://www.ozgrid.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24193
word wrap only functions for 1024 characters.

Can anyone think of a way around this sort of problem?

Thanks!

--Randy