How to Start a New Line in an Excel Cell — Alt+Enter, Wrap Text, and Removing Line Breaks

Start a new line inside a cell — Alt+Enter

Open the practice file. Column D, Items to bring, has items run together with commas — 'Laptop, Projector, 10 handouts'. Let's put one item on each line.

1. 1Double-click D2, or select it and press F2, so the cursor blinks inside the cell.
2. 2Delete the comma and space after 'Laptop' and press Alt+Enter right there.
3. 3Do the same after 'Projector', then press Enter to finish.

Plain Enter doesn't break the line — it confirms the entry and moves to D3. Microsoft's instructions are the same: double-click the cell or press F2, click where you want the break, and press Alt+Enter.

What Alt+Enter inserts is an invisible line break character. With 'Laptop ⏎ Projector ⏎ 10 handouts' in a cell, =LEN(D2) returned 28 — 26 letters and spaces plus the two breaks — and =CODE(MID(D2,7,1)), the character right after 'Laptop', returned 10. That code-10 character is the CHAR(10) you'll use below to add or remove line breaks with formulas.

Wrap Text — fold text to the column width

You don't need line break characters to see long text on several lines. Home > Alignment > Wrap Text folds the text at the column edge, and Microsoft notes that the wrapping adjusts when you change the column width. Select a cell that already has a line break and you'll see the Wrap Text button shown as pressed.

I put the same sentence ('Please upload the meeting files to the team folder by 10 a.m. next Monday') in one cell with Wrap Text on and only changed the column width. Narrow column, many lines; wide column, few. If the Alignment group is squeezed into a single button on a narrow window, the Wrap Text button is inside it.

When a line break doesn't show

• A formula's line break: =B3&CHAR(10)&C3 returned text with a code-10 break, yet Wrap Text stayed off and the row stayed one line high. Pressing Wrap Text made it two lines. Typed values turned Wrap Text on by themselves; the formula didn't
• A row with a fixed height: I set a row to the standard one-line height, then turned Wrap Text on for 'Laptop ⏎ Projector'. The row stayed one line high, so only 'Laptop' showed. Home > Cells > Format > AutoFit Row Height made it two lines tall
• Merged cells: Microsoft lists merged cells as the other reason wrapped text may not be fully visible (merging comes in Basics 5)

Line breaks with formulas — CHAR(10)

To join several cells and break the line between them, put CHAR(10) in between — and remember to turn on Wrap Text for the result cell.

=A2&CHAR(10)&B2                                 → two lines
=TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10),TRUE,"Laptop","Projector")    → Laptop ⏎ Projector

TEXTJOIN puts its first argument (here CHAR(10)) between each value, which is shorter than chaining & when you join many cells. The TRUE skips empty cells.

Remove all line breaks at once

1. 1Find & Replace: Home > Find & Select > Replace (Ctrl+H). Click in Find what and press Ctrl+J — that types a line break (you'll barely see it). Put / in Replace with and choose Replace All. In the Korean test, 'Quote ⏎ Business cards ⏎ 3 samples ⏎ Drinks'-style cells became one line each
2. 2SUBSTITUTE: to keep the original and build the result next to it — =SUBSTITUTE(D2,CHAR(10),", ") returned 'Laptop, Projector, 10 handouts'

Practice

Turn D2:D5 in the practice file into one item per line — without pressing Alt+Enter in every cell.

1. 1Select D2:D5 and open Find & Replace (Ctrl+H).
2. 2Find what: a comma and a space (, ). In Replace with, press Ctrl+J. Replace All.
3. 3If the rows didn't grow, Home > Cells > Format > AutoFit Row Height.

When I did this, every comma became a line break and Wrap Text was on, but the rows stayed one line high until step 3 — after AutoFit the 'Quote, Business cards, 3 samples, Drinks' row was four lines tall. Compare with the answer file, where all rows are already fitted.

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