To Increase Indent:
Pressing the [Tab] key in Excel does not indent text in a cell; it simply moves the cell pointer to the next cell. To indent text in a cell, follow the steps below.
- Enter your text into the document.
- Select the cell(s) whose entries you want to indent. (Make sure the cursor is not blinking within the selection.)
- Under the "Home" tab, in the "Alignment" group, click the "Increase Indent" icon (right-facing arrow pointing towards lines that resemble text). Each time you click the button, the selected text will indent further to the right.
- If you go too far, select the "Decrease Indent" icon (back-facing arrow) to move the text back toward the left.
To Wrap Text:
The wrap text option is useful if your text entry extends beyond the right edge of the cell. These instructions will show you how to change a cell's text alignment, so that the text wraps within the cell.
- Select the cell.
- Under the "Home" tab, in the "Alignment" group, choose "Wrap Text." Excel will make the contents of each cell visible by displaying it on multiple lines.
To Indent Individual Lines:
While you can change the indentation for a whole cell, you can not automatically indent individual lines of a cell. However, you can still get this effect by completing the following steps:
- Select the desired cell(s).
- Turn on "Wrap Text" using the instructions above.
- Click your cursor into the desired cell.
- Type the desired text. To go to a new line, press [Alt]+[Enter].
- To indent individual lines of text, use the space bar to insert the desired space.
Warning! When you indent individual lines of a cell by inserting spaces, note that the formatting may change if you resize the cell.