Incorporate text in one cell using Fill/Justify in Microsoft Excel

Q: I receive client files with text on multiple lines that are all part of the same sentence. How can I easily incorporate all the text in one cell?

A: You can combine text that is separated into multiple cells in Excel. Let’s look at an example of how to do this. You can access a copy of this workbook here.

The screenshot below shows a small portion of the balance sheet used in this example. Note that the Long-term debt account is split between rows seven and eight. If you want the entire Long-term debt account listed on row 7, simply select cells A7:A8. Go to Home on the Ribbon, go to the group Editing, click the dropdown arrow next to Fill, and choose Justify.

If you want the entire text to fit horizontally in the cell, be sure the cell is wide enough before completing the steps above. This also works only up to 255 characters. Remember, characters include spaces, symbols, text, numbers, etc. Currently, large amounts of text will not work with this feature.

A video demonstration of this process is available at the bottom of this article.

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About the author

Kelly L. Williams, CPA, Ph.D., MBA, is an associate professor of accounting at the Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University.