Midlands Microsoft Office Provider

1.4 Format Cells – Alignment Tab; Practice Exercises 2, 3, & 4 – Intermediate Excel 2016

Practice Exercise 2 – Wrap Text Feature
Wrap Text Feature
Open the data file FORMAT CELLS EXERCISES. At the bottom of the worksheet, select the WRAP TEXT EXERCISE tab. We will explore working with the Format Cells Alignment tab. 

When your column is too wide, as illustrated in FIGURE 1, you can save worksheet space by wrapping the text in the cell. 
​​STEP 1: Make cell A1 the active cell (FIGURE 1). Right-button mouse click cell A1 and select Format Cells.      

STEP 2: Select the Alignment tab.
​In the Text control section, check the box Wrap text. (FIGURE 2).
STEP 3: Decrease the column A width to 20 points (FIGURE 3). You can see part of the text but not all of it. Since we engaged the Wrap text feature, Excel needs more row height to display all of our text. ​​
STEP 4: Increase Row 1 height to 30 points (FIGURE 4). 
STEP 5: The result that shows the wrapped text is shown in FIGURE 5. 
       FIGURE 1
                                                            FIGURE 2
                                            FIGURE 3
                                                 FIGURE 4
                                                   FIGURE 5
​End of Practice Exercise 2
Practice Exercise 3 – Merge Cells Feature
We are still using the data file FORMAT CELLS EXERCISES. At the bottom of the worksheet, select the MERGE CELLS EXERCISE tab. 
To place a title in row 1, we need to merge cells A1:E1 so that there is one cell spanning columns A through E.​ Cell address A1 (lowest address of the multi-cell merge) becomes the cell address for the merged cells, A1, B1, C1, D1, and E1.
​
​STEP 1: Make cell A1 the active cell. Click and drag mouse to highlight cell range A1:E1 (FIGURE 1).
                           FIGURE 1
STEP 2: Place mouse on top of any portion of the highlighted cells, right-button mouse click and select Format Cells (FIGURE 2).

​STEP 3: Select the Alignment tab on the Format Cells dialog box. In the Text control section, check the box Merge cells (FIGURE 3). Select OK button.
FIGURE 2
            FIGURE 3
​STEP 4:  Cells A1:E1 have all merged into one cell, A1.
​Enter into cell address A1: “Northern/Southern Region Sales”
​The result is shown in FIGURE 3 to the right:
FIGURE 3
End of Practice Exercise 3
Practice Exercise 4 – Orientation Feature
Orientation Feature
At the bottom of the worksheet, select the ORIENTATION EXERCISE tab.
​In FIGURE 1, to narrow the columns, we can use the Orientation feature to slant some columns and vertically list our data.
​STEP 1: Highlight cell range A1:A4 with mouse 
STEP 2: Right-button mouse click those highlighted cells.  On the mouse shortcut menu, select Format Cells. 
                                                        FIGURE 1
                                                             FIGURE 2
STEP 3: On the Format Cells Alignment tab, in the Orientation section (FIGURE 3), enter 45 degrees (or you can click and drag the Text hand up to the 45 degree position using a mouse). Select the OK button.

​

STEP 4: Highlight cell range B2:D4 with mouse.  Right-button mouse click those cells and from the mouse shortcut menu, select Format Cells. Select the Alignment tab. In the Orientation section, select the vertical text control, which will produce a black highlight when depressed (FIGURE 4). 
                 FIGURE 3
                            FIGURE 4
STEP 5: We can see the results of the previous step here. The result is shown in FIGURE 5.
                                                                                FIGURE 5
This is the end of this section. To continue, go to Module 1 Section 1.5 Format Cells – Font Tab; Practice Exercise 5