And to enter a line break we need to mention 10 if you are using Excel Windows version and 13 if you are using Excel MAC version. You can learn more about CHAR from here, and now, let’s move on to our line break formulas. How can I do it in Excel for Mac? Is there a way to represent the line break within the Excel 'Replace' tool, just like ^p in the Word 'Replace' tool? Or is there a way to paste a Word table (which has line breaks within the table cells) into Excel, keeping the line breaks? Edited by moderator: email address removed.
I didn't mean how to enter a line break in Excel. I mean if you export a CSV with a cell containing line break and then import the file back, Excel cannot handle it correctly. Here is some workaround – Tom Yeh Feb 5 at 2:08. I'm using Excel within Office 2008 for Mac. In a large spreadsheet, I need to replace all line breaks within a cell with a space. I understand that to CREATE a line break, I would use Ctrl+Alt+Enter, but the Find box does not accept that. It also does not accept a pasted line break. I've tried everything I can think of.
While entering or editing data in Excel it is possible to add line breaks in the cell using Alt + Enter. This can be a convenient way to display data in Excel, but is often not great for any type of data analysis.
For example, it might be more convenient for the reader to display an address in a cell like this:
Rather than like this:
In this post I’ll show you how to separate the data in your cells based on the in-cell line breaks. This can be useful when doing any sort of data analysis on the data. In this example, we have address data which includes a person’s name, address, city and country. The data is in one cell for each person but the name, address, city and country are on different lines.
Select your data and open the Text to Columns wizard.
- Select all the data containing multiple in-cell lines which you want to convert into single line cells.
- Go to the Data tab in the ribbon.
- Select Text to Columns in the Data Tools section.
Text to Columns wizard step 1.
- Select Delimited option under Original data type.
- Press the Next button.
Text to Columns wizard step 2.
- Select Other from the Delimiters options and deselect all the rest of the options. In the input box to the right of Other press Ctrl + J to insert a line break as your delimiter.
- You should see dividers appear in the Data preview pane where there are line breaks in your data.
- Press the Next button.
Text to Columns wizard step 3.
- Use the range selector icon to choose a destination for the divided data. Select a cell outside of the original data range to keep a copy of the original data.
- Check the Data preview to make sure the text to column is correct.
- Press the Finish button.
Now each line from the original data is in its own column allowing for easier analysis of the different data fields using pivot tables, formulas or other tools!
Sometimes it’s necessary to have more than one line inside a worksheet cell, which is easily done with a line break.
New Line in Excel Cell (MAC)
Add a new line in Excel cell on Mac computers by holding down the Alt key while you press enter. It’s the keyboard shortcut Alt+Enter. In Excel 2008 and 2011 for Mac use Cmd+Option+Enter.
Fig. 1 – Use a Line Break in a Cell with Alt+Enter
A Potential Problem with Using Ctrl+Enter in Excel
![How To Enter A Line Break In Excel For Mac How To Enter A Line Break In Excel For Mac](/uploads/1/1/9/5/119551903/547519124.png)
The line break is the character code 10. While invisible to the eye in Excel, this character may create problems when exported into a database system by prematurely starting a new record every time it’s encountered.
Using Extra Spaces to Create a Line Break (Not Recommended)
I’ve seen Excel users who don’t know about this shortcut so they try and make the lines wrap inside the cell by providing extra spaces between words. Adding spaces may provide a worksheet cell that looks nice and correct, but an export will also include those extra spaces. (See the formula bar below)
How To Enter A Line Break In Excel For Mac Os
Fig. 2 – Use Spaces to Wrap a Line in a Cell
Another problem with adding extra spaces is that, when the column width changes it can provide an unpredictable alignment. By looking in the formula bar you can see if there’s a proper line break (fig 1) OR extra spaces that might be problematic. (fig 2)
![How to enter a line break in excel for mac os How to enter a line break in excel for mac os](https://www.spreadsheetsmadeeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/New-Line-Plain-Text.gif?x34365)
Enter Line Break In Excel Formula
Expanding the Formula Bar in Excel 2007 and 2010
The formula bar typically doesn’t show more than one line. In the two figures above the formula bar has been expanded. You can do this with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+U, which you’ll probably never remember, or you can select the drop-down arrow at the right side of the formula bar.
How To Enter A Line Break In Excel For Macs
Formula Bar for 2003 and 2008
This keyboard shortcut doesn’t work in Excel 2008 or Excel 2008 for Mac, and there’s no drop-down arrow at the right side of the formula bar. When you encounter a cell with more than one line Excel automatically expands the formula bar. No manual intervention required.
How To Enter A Line Break In Excel For Mac Pro
This is why some users are stumped after upgrading to 2007 or 2010 and finding they can’t see the entire cell contents in the formula bar. I know I was. ?