Microsoft Office

Part I
Getting Started with Excel
Choosing horizontal alignment options
The horizontal alignment options control the way the cell contents are distributed across the width of the
cell (or cells). The horizontal alignment options available in the Format Cells dialog box are
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General: Aligns numbers to the right, aligns text to the left, and centers logical and error values.
This option is the default alignment.
Left: Aligns the cell contents to the left side of the cell. If the text is wider than the cell, the text
spills over to the cell to the right. If the cell to the right isn’t empty, the text is truncated and not
completely visible. Also available on the Ribbon.
Center: Centers the cell contents in the cell. If the text is wider than the cell, the text spills over
to cells on either side if they’re empty. If the adjacent cells aren’t empty, the text is truncated and
not completely visible. Also available on the Ribbon.
Right: Aligns the cell contents to the right side of the cell. If the text is wider than the cell, the
text spills over to the cell to the left. If the cell to the left isn’t empty, the text is truncated and not
completely visible. Also available on the Ribbon.
Fill: Repeats the contents of the cell until the cell’s width is filled. If cells to the right also are formatted
with Fill alignment, they also are filled.
Justify: Justifies the text to the left and right of the cell. This option is applicable only if the cell is
formatted as wrapped text and uses more than one line.
Center across selection: Centers the text over the selected columns. This option is useful for
precisely centering a heading over a number of columns.
Distributed: Distributes the text evenly across the selected column.
If you choose Left, Right, or Distributed, you can also adjust the Indent setting, which adds
space between the cell border and the text.
Choosing vertical alignment options
The vertical alignment options typically aren’t used as often as the horizontal alignment options. In fact,
these settings are useful only if you’ve adjusted row heights so that they’re considerably taller than normal.
The vertical alignment options available in the Format Cells dialog box are
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Top: Aligns the cell contents to the top of the cell. Also available on the Ribbon.
Center: Centers the cell contents vertically in the cell. Also available on the Ribbon.
Bottom: Aligns the cell contents to the bottom of the cell. Also available on the Ribbon.
Justify: Justifies the text vertically in the cell; this option is applicable only if the cell is formatted
as wrapped text and uses more than one line.
Distributed: Distributes the text evenly vertically in the cell.
Wrapping or shrinking text to fit the cell
If you have text that is too wide to fit the column width but don’t want that text to spill over into adjacent
cells, you can use either the Wrap Text option or the Shrink To Fit option to accommodate that text. The
Wrap Text control is also available on the Ribbon.
The Wrap Text option displays the text on multiple lines in the cell, if necessary. Use this option to display
lengthy headings without having to make the columns too wide, and without reducing the size of the text.
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