Line Break in Excel (Table of Contents)
Introduction to Line Break in Excel
Actually, we do not think about line breaks while using them. They are used in many situations like when we are writing Email or posting something on social media or starting a new paragraph on MS Powerpoint or MS word etc. They are easy to add in most programs and for this, the only thing we have to do is press Enter on your keyboard. But this does not work in Excel. If we ever try to add a line break in Excel by pressing ENTER, we go to the next cell in our worksheet. It seems like impossible. But do not worry about it.
Methods to Insert Line Breaks
Here, we have two methods to add line breaks in Excel.
- By using the keyboard shortcut
- By using formula
Method #1 – By Using Keyboard Shortcut
For this, double click the cell and then bring the cursor where you want to insert the line break. After this, use the keyboard shortcut ALT + ENTER., this will add a line break in the right of the cursor. Here, we have a simple keyboard shortcut to add line breaks in any cell in Excel. Press Alt + Enter ( Ctrl + Option + Enter for Mac). This will automatically set Wrap Text ON for the cell.
In this example, we want the line break in cell A5. So, we double click the cell and bring the cursor (after “a”) where we want the line break and press “ALT+ENTER”. Then we get a result.
Similarly, we can insert line breaks in any cell. Suppose we want to add a line break after the second “m” in the cell A3.
For this, we have to double click the cell A3 and bring the cursor after second “m”, then press Alt+Enter. Now, we have another example.
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Here, we have inserted the line break after five digits of Mobile no. in cell C4. But when we have to do the same in a number of cells then this method is time-consuming and not efficient. In that case, we use a formula to add a line break.
Method #2 – By Using Formula
When we have to insert line breaks in many cells in Excel then we can not use a keyboard shortcut. In this case, we have to use a formula to insert the line break.
Formula:
=”text”&CHAR(10)&”text”
In the above-written formula to add a line break, we use the concatenation operator with the CHAR function. CHAR function returns the result based on the ASCII code which is a character code. Here, we have some examples to explain the working of this formula.
In the example shown, we want to write the text from cell A2, B2, and C2 with line breaks in D2. For this, enable the Wrap Text first and then use formula “=A2&CHAR(10)&B2&CHAR(10)&C2”.
The above-written formula glues the text that appears in A2, B2, and C2 using the ampersand which is the concatenation operator in MS Excel. We get the result.
In the example shown, we want to write the text from cell A3, B3, and C3 with line breaks in D3. For this, enable the Wrap Text first and then use formula “=A3&CHAR(10)&B3&CHAR(10)&C3”.
Thus the character function in this formula combines the text that appears in A3, B3, and C3. We get the result.
In this example shown, we want to write the text from cell A4, B4, and C4 with line breaks in D4. For this, enable the Wrap Text first and then use formula “=A4&CHAR(10)&B4&CHAR(10)&C4”.
Thus the character function in this formula combines the text that appears in A4, B4, and C4 and we get the result.
In this example shown, we want to write the text from cell A5, B5, and C5 with line breaks in D5. For this, enable the Wrap Text first and then use formula “=A5&CHAR(10)&B5&CHAR(10)&C5”.
Thus the character function in this formula combines the text that appears in A5, B5, and C5 and we get the result.
Conclusion
ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Line Feed means moving the cursor to the beginning of next line But remember to insert the line break in MS Excel, first we have to enable the Wrap Text otherwise CHAR function will make no changes in the result. And for this, select the cell with the formula then go to Home then Alignment then Wrap Text. If you are using Mac, use 13 instead of 10 as an argument of CHAR function which represents “carriage return”. Carriage return brings the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
Things to Remember About Line Break in Excel
- Keyboard shortcut is a good way to insert line break in small no. of cells but to add a line break in a large number of cells, use CHAR function.
- CHAR function returns the result on the base of a character code.
- It uses parameter 10 for windows and 13 for Mac. Here, 10 represents “line feed” and 13 represents “carriage return”.
- Lie Feed means moving the cursor to the next line and Carriage Return means moving the cursor to the beginning of the current line.
- When we use a shortcut, it will enable the Wrap Text automatically.
- MS Excel does not enable the Wrap Text by itself when we use the formula to add a line break. We have to enable it manually.
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