When viewing a spreadsheet in Excel, if you have one column that has a long string of text how can you hide the text that the next column covers. I know as soon as I enter something in the next cell it covers it, but is there a way to hide it without having to enter something in the next cell? If you need a clearer description I will check back later.

Hi Qbart, Try this, right click on the cell, select format menu goto alignment and set the horizontal text alignment to fill. Mike

I tried that but it didn't work. I wound up putting zeros in the next column and learned to live with it. I would still be curious if there is a way to do it though. Here is a visual of what I'm talking about. ---------- This is what happens ----A----------B---------C this is a dummy file -------- This is what I want ----A----------B---------C this is a -------- Not a real big deal. Thanks for the help though!

You could use the Space bar instead of zeros. Bryan

I'm pretty sure this can't be done in the way you want - it goes against the purpose of a spreadsheet. There is a cheat I can think of, though, that stops you having to enter blanks in a neighbouring column: If you merge two cells then the boundaries of the cells become 'unbreachable' - thus when you type into it and go beyond the edge of the cell, Excel curtails the text exactly the way you want. So, in your example above, if you merge cell A1 with cell A2, then the overlap with column B will disappear. Similarly, if you merge with the cell to the left, the same thing will happen - thought this is obviously impossible in your example (but may well be the more practical alternative for your actual spreadsheet) Hope thats of interest Tom

To keep the text within a given cell: On the menu bar: Format>Cells>Alignment Tab>put a check mark in "Wrap Text" box. This will wrap the text within the cell, but be aware that it will increase the row height to accomodate the text.