Tutorial – Excel Alignment text tips

Changing the font and size

You will be familiar with the basic options for changing the font in a cell.

The font used in the cell
Font size
Bold or Italic
Change the background color of the cell
Change the text color in the cell

However, other lesser-known options exist, such as double-stroke underlining (after clicking the arrow next to the U).

Or the ability to enlarge or reduce the font size in a cell from the ribbon.

Worked example: what does this icon do?

What is the purpose of this icon?

But there are other options for formatting your text.

Click on the arrow at the bottom right of the font options.

This action opens a new dialog box with new options

With the Strikethrough, Superscript or Subscript options, you can change your text as follows:

Strikethrough Superscript Subscript options

The technique to apply strikethrough, superscript or subscript is as follows:

Activate the cell with the text you want to apply superscript style
In the formula bar, select the characters which will have a different format
Open the Advanced Font Option
Select the Style option you want to apply
Press OK to close the dialog box
Press Enter to validate the result in your formula bar

Aligning the content in a cell

By default, text in Excel is aligned to the left of a cell, while numbers and dates are aligned to the right.
This default alignment helps maintain clarity and readability in your spreadsheets, ensuring that data is neatly organized for easy reference and comparison.
Understanding these basic alignments is key for beginners to manage and present their data in Excel effectively.

Text aligned to the left, number aligned to the right

But you can change the left, right and center alignment using these icons in the Ribbon:

You can also align the contents of your cells vertically using these other icons.

With the following result in your cells:

Add an indent to cells

Less well-known, you can add an indent to your cells using these icons:

Reduce indent
Increase indent

Adding an indent means moving the text away from the edge of the cell.
The more you click on the icon, the more the text will be moved.

WARNING: with numbers, you must also indicate that the alignment is to the right.

Worked example: merge and centre in practice

What alignment or indent options have been used in the next cell?

Question option alignment or indent used

One option that's used frequently in Excel is the Merge and Centre option.
This option allows you to position text in the middle of several cells.

BUT! Without going into technical considerations at this stage of the training, you should be aware that this method is not very 'clean' for a spreadsheet.
In fact, some actions, such as copying columns, don't like this technique.

The best technique is to centre your text on several columns.

Select your range of cells
Open the additional alignment options
In the Horizontal alignment options, select Centre Across Selection

Wrap text

When the text in a cell is larger than the cell's width, the part that overlaps the other column is hidden.

Truncated text when the column width is too narrow

But you can avoid this by applying the Automatic carriage return option to all the cells in your column:

Excel will automatically adapt the rows' height to the cells' content.

You can insert a manual carriage return in a cell with the shortcut Alt+Enter

Reset the horizontal alignment

If you have applied a large number of alignment options (left, centre, etc.) or an indentation, there is a simple way to return to a situation without any alignment options.

Select the cell to be cleaned of all horizontal alignment options
Open the advanced alignment options
Select the General option

You now have all the alignment tips in hand: fonts and advanced styles, horizontal and vertical alignment, indents, wrapping and merging text, and resetting everything back to default when needed.

Continue learning

Keep building your Excel skills with the rest of this tutorial series: