Sizing Text Boxes and Cells the Same

You already know that Excel allows you to create text boxes within your worksheets. You may have a need, at some point, to create a text box that is exactly the same size as a particular cell. If you only have one or two such text boxes to create, the easiest way is to follow these steps:

1. Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.
2. Click on the Text Box tool (Excel 2007, Excel 2010, or Excel 2013) or click the Text tool and then Text Box (Excel 2016 or later versions).
3. Hold down the Alt key as you click and drag to create your text box.

When you hold down the Alt key, it forces Excel to "snap" the sides of your text box to a drawing grid which just happens to match the cell boundaries in your worksheet. The result is a text box that is exactly the desired size.

If you need to create quite a few of these text boxes, all at one time, you can turn the snap-to-grid feature on permanently: Display the Page Layout tab of the ribbon, click the Align tool in the Arrange group, then click Snap To Grid.

If you have many, many such text boxes to create, on lots of different workbooks, you can create the desired text boxes using a macro. The following macro will create a text box directly over the selected cell and size it to be exactly the same size as the selected cell:

Sub TextBox2Cell()
    With ActiveCell
        ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddTextbox _
          msoTextOrientationHorizontal, .Left, _
          .Top, .Width, .Height
    End With
End Sub

With a small change in the macro, you can modify it so that it will create text boxes that are just as large as whatever range of cells you have selected:

Sub TextBox2Selection()
    If TypeName(Selection) = "Range" Then
        With Selection
            ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddTextbox _
              msoTextOrientationHorizontal, .Left, _
              .Top, .Width, .Height
        End With
    End If
End Sub

Regardless of which approach you use to create the text box (manual or macro), it should be noted that if you resize the cell by changing the column width or row height, the size of the text box will also change to match the new cell size.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11359) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Sizing Text Boxes and Cells the Same.