Discover the specifics of controlling content placement in Microsoft Excel worksheet cells, including default content positioning, changes to content placement, and the use of the Home tab and Format Cells dialog box. Learn how to effectively use alignment options for text, Wrap Text feature, Increase Indent button, Merge & Center button, and Orientation button.
Key Insights
- By default, Excel positions text as left-aligned, while numbers, dates, and times are right-aligned. All content aligns to the bottom of the cell.
- The Home tab in Excel provides several alignment options for text, including Align Left, Center, and Align Right button.
- Applying Wrap Text in Excel can make the row taller to accommodate longer headings. Additionally, you can adjust the vertical alignment of content within cells using Bottom Align, Top Align, or Middle Align options.
- The Increase Indent button in Excel allows you to differentiate cell content through placement rather than by modifying text attributes like bolding or italicizing, or changing text size.
- The Merge & Center button in Excel enables the combination of a selected range of cells into a single cell and centering the content within it.
- The Format Cells dialog box in Excel offers additional alignment controls, such as Justify and Distributed options, which spread the content out within the cell. This box also contains unique features like Shrink to Fit and Right-to-Left option for Text Direction.
Cell Content Tools
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Alignment
Left, center, right horizontally; top, middle, bottom vertically.
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Wrap Text
Text wraps within the cell; row height adjusts to fit.
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Merge Cells
Combine multiple cells into one — use sparingly, breaks sorting.
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Indent
Increase indent for sub-items in hierarchical lists.
Controlling Content Placement in Worksheet Cells
As you build your worksheets, knowing how Excel will position your content by default, and how to change content placement when you need to, is important.
So let’s start with the defaults. Text is left-aligned in worksheet cells, and numbers, dates, and times are right-aligned. All content, regardless of the type of content it is, will be aligned to the bottom of the cell.
You can change that, however, with a series of buttons on the Home tab or by using the Format Cells dialog box.
First, let’s look at your alignment options for text in the Alignment section of the Home tab.
Using this series of column headings, let’s look at the effects of the Align Left, Center, and Align Right button. I’ll stick with Center after demonstrating all 3.
Applying Wrap Text makes the row taller for longer headings, and therefore the shorter headings now look odd at the bottom of their cells. You may also want to make certain rows taller for spacing, and in that case, the vertical alignment of the content within them is important as well.
The alternatives to the default, Bottom Align, are Top Align or Middle Align. I’m choosing Middle align, so that my headings are now centered, both horizontally and vertically.
So the top 3 buttons are vertical alignment, the bottom 3 are horizontal alignment.
Now, these Subheadings in Column B need to be indented. To do that, I use the Increase Indent button. It’s a great way to differentiate your cell content through placement, rather than by bolding or italicizing it, or changing its size.
If I go too far or change my mind about indenting the heading, I can use the Decrease Indent button.
As you learned in another of our videos, the Merge & Center button allows you to combine a selected range of cells into a single cell and then center the content within it, and I mention it here because it’s right there in the Alignment section. I’ll merge and center our heading into cells B2 through J2.
Less often used is the Orientation button, which allows you to put headings – or any content, but it’s usually headings – on an angle. This can be handy when horizontal space is at a premium and you don’t want to wrap your headings.
I’ll apply it to these headings for demonstration purposes, but I don’t find this feature that useful, and it offends my design sensibilities. I have seen it used effectively once or twice, so don’t let me discourage you. Enjoy if this looks like a tool you’ll find helpful.
The Format Cells dialog box also contains an Alignment tab, which you can use to do the same things we see in on the ribbon. There are a few different controls here, though, so let’s look at those.
First, you choose your alignment options for Horizontal and Vertical alignment from drop lists.
Note that we also have a Justify and Distributed options in both lists, which spread the content out within the cell.
Switching to a new worksheet, the Horizontal Justify option spreads the content out across the width of the cell, which creates odd gaps.
The Vertical Distribute option spreads the type out vertically and left-aligns it, with no spread across. It works much like Wrap Text and gives you better outcomes than Justify.
Next, you can set your indent with a number, equivalent to the number of clicks on the Increase Indent button. Reducing the number is like clicking the Decrease Indent button.
Wrap Text is also found here, as is Merge Cells, but this merge doesn’t center – it keeps whatever alignment is in place in the selected range of cells.
One feature we have here that’s unique to the Format Cells dialog box is the Shrink to Fit option, which makes the contents of the cell fit within the cell at its current width and height. If there’s a lot of content in the cell, this can result in microscopic content, so use with care.
Another option we only have here in the Format Cells dialog box is the Right-to-Left option for Text Direction, which determines the direction cell content is “written to” or read within the cell.
On the right side of the Format Cells dialog box, in the Alignment tab, see the Orientation settings. You can click the button for vertically stacking the cell content, or click to move the red dot around the semi-circle to put your cell content on an angle.
If you have a specific degree of rotation you’d like to set, enter that in the Degrees box.
While most of the time you’re going to stick with the defaults and some of the more basic or traditional choices for aligning your content, there are plenty of options to choose from – so there’s a way to achieve just about any placement preference you might have.
Video Transcription:
Full Video Transcript
Default Content Alignment in Excel
As you build your worksheets, knowing how Excel will position your content by default and how to change content placement when you need to is important. So let's start with the defaults. Text is left aligned in worksheet cells, and numbers, dates, and times are right aligned. All content, regardless of the type of content it is, will be aligned to the bottom of the cell.
You can change that, however, with a series of buttons on the Home tab or by using the Format Cells dialog box. First, let's look at your alignment options for text. In the Alignment section of the Home tab, using the series of column headings, let's look at the effects of the Align Left, Center, and Align Right buttons. I'll stick with Center after demonstrating all three.
Vertical and Horizontal Alignment Options
Applying Wrap Text makes the row taller for longer headings, and therefore the shorter headings will now look odd at the bottom of their cells. You may also have need to make rows taller for spacing in some of your worksheets, and in that case the vertical alignment of content within them is important as well. The alternatives to the default Bottom Align are Top Align and Middle Align. I'm choosing Middle Align so that the headings are now centered both horizontally and vertically. So the top three buttons are for vertical alignment, and the bottom three are for horizontal alignment.
Indenting and Merging Cells
Now these subheadings in Column B need to be indented. To do that, I'll use the Increase Indent button. It's a great way to differentiate your cell content through placement rather than by bolding or italicizing it or changing its size. If I go too far or change my mind about indenting the heading, I can use the Decrease Indent button.
As you may have learned in our other videos, the Merge and Center button allows you to combine a selected range of cells into a single cell, and I mention it here because it's right there in the Alignment section. I'll merge and center our heading into cells B2 through J2.
Text Orientation Options
Less often used is the Orientation button, which allows you to put your headings or any content (but it's usually headings) on an angle. This can be handy when horizontal space is at a premium and you don't want to wrap your headings. I'll apply it to these headings for demonstration purposes, but I don't find this feature that useful, so I'll undo it right afterward. It offends my design sensibilities, but I have seen it used effectively once or twice, so don't let me discourage you. Enjoy this tool if you find it helpful.
Format Cells Dialog Box Alignment Tab
The Format Cells dialog box also contains an Alignment tab, which you can use to do the same things we see on the ribbon. There are a few different controls there though, so let's look at those. First, you can choose your alignment options for horizontal and vertical alignment from drop lists. Note that we also have Justify and Distributed options in both lists, which spread the content out within the cell.
Switching to a new worksheet, the Horizontal Justify option spreads the content out across the width of the cell, which creates odd gaps. The Vertical Distributed option spreads the type out vertically and left aligns it with no spread across. It works much like Wrap Text and gives you a better outcome than Justify. Next, you can set your indent with a number, the equivalent to the number of clicks of the Increase Indent button. Reducing the number is like clicking decrease. Wrap Text is also found here, as is Merge Cells, but this merge doesn't center—it keeps whatever alignment is in place in the selected range of cells. Note here where the title has already been merged, it's shown as checked in the dialog box.
Shrink to Fit and Text Direction
One feature we have here that's unique to the Format Cells dialog box is the Shrink to Fit option, which makes the contents of the cell fit within the cell at the current width and height. If there's a lot of content in the cell, this can result in microscopic content, so use with care. Another option we only have in the Format Cells dialog box is the Right to Left option for text direction, which determines the direction cell content is written to or read within the cell.
Orientation Settings in the Dialog Box
On the right side of the Format Cells dialog box in the Alignment tab, see the Orientation settings. You can click the button to vertically stack cell content or click to move the red dot around the semicircle to put your cell content on an angle. If you have a specific degree of rotation you'd like to set, you can enter that into the Degrees box.
While most of the time you're going to stick with the defaults and some of the more basic or traditional choices for aligning your content, there are plenty of options to choose from. So there's a way to achieve just about any placement preference you might have.