merging cells and not losing data

[Ellen]

I was typing into a merged cell which was approximately 20 rows long by 9
column wide. It only appears on one page. In the box at the top of the screen
that has the "Fx" in front it, I can view every single word I've typed. It's
quite lengthy. But when I click back into my Excel document, only about half
of the words appear. And there is plenty of empty space left in my merged
cell area. I've tried making the font smaller, unmerging the cells, copying
my text into one cell and remerging the cells (forcing the text into the
merged area), etc. Everything is wrapped appropriately and I've tried Alt +
Enter, which did not do what I needed. Simply, how can I view all of the text
that I've typed in my merged cells. Why is the text disappearing?

Ellen

 

[Spiky]

I was typing into a merged cell which was approximately 20 rows long by 9
column wide. It only appears on one page. In the box at the top of the screen
that has the "Fx" in front it, I can view every single word I've typed. It's
quite lengthy. But when I click back into my Excel document, only about half
of the words appear. And there is plenty of empty space left in my merged
cell area. I've tried making the font smaller, unmerging the cells, copying
my text into one cell and remerging the cells (forcing the text into the
merged area), etc. Everything is wrapped appropriately and I've tried Alt +
Enter, which did not do what I needed. Simply, how can I view all of the text
that I've typed in my merged cells. Why is the text disappearing?

Ellen

Excel can only keep so many characters per cell. You may have reached
that limit. Try using more than one cell instead of merging them,
merging is a PITA in many ways. You can quickly spread the words
across a few cells by selecting the area that you want the words to
appear in (say A1:I20 for 9x20) and then using Edit|Fill|Justify. Type
a bunch in A1, more in A2, etc. When finished do the Justify to make
it look nicer.

Sure sounds like a lot of typing for a spreadsheet. Sometimes it's
just better to use Word for this part and save Excel for tables and
numerical data.