How to paste and wordwrap a paragraph of text into Excel 2002

[jbclem]

I like to save small bits of information, usually messages (answers) from
online forums, into a worksheet I call "misc notes". Trouble is when I do
this, a paragraph of text ends up as one long sentence stretching across
many cells, disappearing off the screen to the right.

I'd like to be able to paste text into a given area, actually into the width
of the screen, and have it wordwrap into the next row when it reaches the
width of the screen. How can I do this? Excel 2002 doesn't even allow the
word "wordwrap" in it's help keyword slot.


John

 

[jbclem]

Just to be clear, I don't want to paste this text into one cell, but into
however many cells(or columns) make up the width of the screen.

John

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

I like to save small bits of information, usually messages (answers) from
online forums, into a worksheet I call "misc notes". Trouble is when I do
this, a paragraph of text ends up as one long sentence stretching across
many cells, disappearing off the screen to the right.

I'd like to be able to paste text into a given area, actually into the width
of the screen, and have it wordwrap into the next row when it reaches the
width of the screen. How can I do this? Excel 2002 doesn't even allow the
word "wordwrap" in it's help keyword slot.


John

You can paste it into one cell, and then set the alignment
(Format/Cells/Alignment) Wrap Text option.

I
--ron

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

Just to be clear, I don't want to paste this text into one cell, but into
however many cells(or columns) make up the width of the screen.

John

If you want to do something like this, you will need to be very specific.

How many words per cell.

How many columns make up the width of the screen.

--ron

 

[jbclem]

I tried that, but now instead of having the text stretching out of sight to
the right, now it goes out of sight downward. I once knew how to make it
fit into a selected range of cells/columns, but I've forgotten and can't
figure out how to do that...the help files don't help, and googling hasn't
done much either. But I know it can be done. I don't want to widen the
column to the width of the screen, that will throw off everything else above
this point.

John

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

I tried that, but now instead of having the text stretching out of sight to
the right, now it goes out of sight downward. I once knew how to make it
fit into a selected range of cells/columns, but I've forgotten and can't
figure out how to do that...the help files don't help, and googling hasn't
done much either. But I know it can be done. I don't want to widen the
column to the width of the screen, that will throw off everything else above
this point.

John

I don't know of any method to just paste to the worksheet, and have it
automatically fit into the number of columns you happen to have showing on the
screen.

As far as I know, you can either paste your text into the formula bar, in which
case it will be all contained in one cell. You can widen the cell and select
word-wrap, but, as you write, that will distort your worksheet.

OR you can paste it after selecting a cell. In this case it will paste into
successive rows depending on where the line breaks are in the original source.

If you paste after selecting a cell, and if there is nothing in the cells to
the right, you'll be able to see the text you pasted all on one line.

The only other way I can think of to do this would be using VBA. You could
copy the notes to your clipboard, and then use a VBA routine to parse them to
some appropriate length, and put each line into it's own row.
--ron

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

I like to save small bits of information, usually messages (answers) from
online forums, into a worksheet I call "misc notes". Trouble is when I do
this, a paragraph of text ends up as one long sentence stretching across
many cells, disappearing off the screen to the right.

I'd like to be able to paste text into a given area, actually into the width
of the screen, and have it wordwrap into the next row when it reaches the
width of the screen. How can I do this? Excel 2002 doesn't even allow the
word "wordwrap" in it's help keyword slot.


John

John,

Did you ever find a solution?

Are you interested in a VBA solution?
--ron

 

[gls858]

I like to save small bits of information, usually messages (answers) from
online forums, into a worksheet I call "misc notes". Trouble is when I do
this, a paragraph of text ends up as one long sentence stretching across
many cells, disappearing off the screen to the right.

I'd like to be able to paste text into a given area, actually into the width
of the screen, and have it wordwrap into the next row when it reaches the
width of the screen. How can I do this? Excel 2002 doesn't even allow the
word "wordwrap" in it's help keyword slot.


John

To me it sounds like you're using the wrong tool for the job. Sort of
like using a monkey wrench to drive a nail. Excel is a program to
manipulate numerical data, not text. Sounds to me like you're building
more of a knowledge base. I use a program called Genral Knowledgebase:

http://www.baltsoft.com/

Not free but useful in multiple situations. I'm sure with a little
looking you could probably find similar for less or even free.

gls858