Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 15, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Have you ever had a string in a cell that you wanted to wrap after every word? The normal way of doing this would be to press F2 and edit the string. You would delete each space and then press Alt+Enter to add a new line character.
There's an easier, less manual method of doing this, however—just use the SUBSTITUTE function. Suppose cell A1 contained "This is my text." Enter the following into another cell:
=SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",CHAR(10))
What this results in is the text of cell A1 with small boxes where the spaces were (earlier versions of Excel) or no spaces in the text (later versions of Excel). Turn on wrapping for the cell (done in the Format Cells dialog box) and each word appears on a different line, just as you wanted.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11233) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Automatically Breaking Text.
Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!
Few things are as frustrating as trying to delete rows or columns and having Excel tell you that you can't perform the ...
Discover MoreExcel makes it easy to delete rows in a worksheet, but it can be more difficult to figure how to delete rows if you only ...
Discover MoreWhen entering data in a worksheet, you may only want to add information to the cells in a particular range. You can ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2022-01-18 09:30:47
Kathy Dennis
Thank you. As a basic excel user, visual examples of the before and after product would be helpful.
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments