Line spacing in wrapped text

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My business partner is creating a spreadsheet for an important presentation. One column contains text. It is setup to wrap the text within the cell. The problem is that the spacing between the wrapped lines is too big. It looks silly with the rest of the rows being “single spaced”. We cannot figure out how to change the line spacing of wrapped text. Can anyone help us?

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Backspacer,

I tried several options w/o luck. Everything seems to wrap the same way. :cheers:
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May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Hmmm. I suppose we will have to live with it. It sure looks silly. Why would they choose to force such a large space on us when their automatic row spacing is so tight and neat looking?

Thanks for trying!

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You could widen the rows to space them differently…

Steve

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Why can’t we make it look the way we want it to look? We don’t want wider (higher, I take it to mean) rows. I’m not mad at you, but am pretty frustrated with Microsoft. Not that it’s the first time. If we can’t change the line spacing, you would think the nitwits would at least make it match the default row spacing in appearance. Don’t they realize that people actually try to use their products?

I don’t need to pay someone to cause frustration. I switched to Open Office a couple of years ago. It doesn’t have this problem, though I’m sure a power user like my partner could find some other problem with it. Personally, it has not frustrated me yet, so I’m happy. In fact, I am using it right now and I’d better get back to work….

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If a presentation, why not use powerpoint which is for presentation rather than Excel which is for number-crunching?

Or even Word which is a word processing and built to do those functions?

[One can use a hammer to drive in screws, but using a screwdriver is easier. A hammer works much better for nails, though I suppose you could ask hammer manufacturers to modify the claw end to have be a flat head and the other a phillips to make it serve that purpose as well…]

Steve

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We have been using Word and Excel for well over 20 years and Powerpoint for probably ten or more. We will use the one we feel is appropriate.

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Based on the idea that sdckapr had but narrowing the rows instead. Here you will see a wrapped text above, and the same text broken into 2 lines below. I am using Calibri 11 font size with a row spacing of 10.5. You can adjust this to match your presentation. Hiding the gridlines makes it look cleaner. I know this is a rediculous work around but if you do not have a lot of text to manipulate, this may be a solution.

Excel has a method to add more space between the lines by right clicking the wrapped cell> format cells> Alignment tab> set the verticle alignment to distributed then increase the row height. Unfortunately, this does not work by reducing the row height to narrow the spacing. It is limited by the constraints of the font. Different fonts will have different spacing.

HTH,
Maud
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Thanks, but that is too much work for a two dimensional spreadsheet with lots of text cells, any of which might need to wrap. I’m trying to get my partner to use Open Office for this spreadsheet as it does not have this problem.

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Actually, not too bad. Copy the contents of the cell by highlighting the text then copy it. Note where the text wraps on the first line. Copy it into Word. Place the cursor after the text you noted where the wrap began in Excel. Press enter. Place the cursor after the word that is about the same length as the first and press enter again. Keep going making new lines all about the same length as the first. Copy the text noting the number of lines and paste back into excel using the number of verticle cells same as the number of lines in Word. The “enter” that you added after each line in Word will force each line into each verticle cell. Now just reduce the height of the rows and you are done. HTH, Maud
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Clever!

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Just a note: you can use a text box and control the text line height within it (sorry to disagree with you RG). Select the text within the box. Right-Click on the selected text and choose paragraph formatting. Set the Line Spacing to “Exactly” and set the point size as desired.

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Inasmuch as your comments indicate you’re proficient with Excel I guess you know/use both methods of wrapping text but in the unlikely event that you don’t, perhaps the Alt-Enter key combo would make a difference (?) I can’t replicate the problem to which you refer as I’m still using Excel 2000 and it wraps text lines in perfect symmetry 🙂

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Just a note: you can use a text box and control the text line height within it (sorry to disagree with you RG). Select the text within the box. Right-Click on the selected text and choose paragraph formatting. Set the Line Spacing to “Exactly” and set the point size as desired.

You can control line spacing in Word 2003 paragraphs (whether in a text box or not). In Excel 2003, however, there is no paragraph formatting, not even within a text box. This may have changed in later versions of Excel, or hopefully, will change in the future.

In response to the OP, I do not agree that the fixed line spacing is too large. Excel uses the standard single line space in word wrapping. It sounds like your spreadsheet has tighter row spacing than single line spacing for the given font used.

The workaround mentioned by others is to separate the lines into individual cells. Another option is to reduce the font size in the wrapped cells to more closely match your tight row spacing.

One caveat! Excel does not do very well with WYSIWYG if you are viewing at less than 100%. Lines wrap differently depending on font and zoom setting. This can be a frustration when lines don’t wrap the way you expect on print out. Maybe this, too, has or will improve with Excel versions later than 2003.

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Try changing the font. The default for Excel 2010 is “Calibri (Body)”. Switch to Arial to get a slightly tighter fit. The default font can be switched under File, Options, General.

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