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For the optimal display of the data on your worksheet (worksheet: The primary document that you use in Excel to store and work with data. Also called a spreadsheet. A worksheet consists of cells that are organized into columns and rows; a worksheet is always stored in a workbook.), you may want to reposition the text within a cell. You can change the alignment of the cell contents, use indentation for better spacing, or display the data at a different angle by rotating it.

1. Select the cell or range (range: Two or more cells on a sheet. The cells in a range can be adjacent or nonadjacent.) of cells that contains the data that you want to reposition.

   How to select a cell or a range

   To select	Do this
   A single cell	Click the cell, or press the arrow keys to move to the cell.
   A range of cells	Click the first cell in the range, and then drag to the last cell, or hold down SHIFT while you press the arrow keys to extend the selection. You can also select the first cell of the range and then press F8 to extend the selection by using the arrow keys.
   A large range of cells	Click the first cell in the range, and then hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell in the range. You can scroll to make the last cell visible.
   All cells on a worksheet	Click the Select All button. To select the entire worksheet, you can also press CTRL+A. Note  If the worksheet contains data, CTRL+A selects the current region. Pressing CTRL+A a second time selects the entire worksheet.
   Nonadjacent cells or cell ranges	Select the first cell or range of cells, and then hold down CTRL while you select the other cells or ranges. You can also select the first cell or range of cells and then press SHIFT+F8 to add another nonadjacent cell or range to the selection. Note  You cannot cancel the selection of a cell or range of cells in a nonadjacent selection without canceling the entire selection.
   An entire row or column	Click the row or column heading. Row heading  Column heading  You can also select cells in a row or column by selecting the first cell and then pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW KEY (RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW for rows, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW for columns). Note  If the row or column contains data, CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW KEY selects the row or column to the last used cell. Pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW KEY a second time selects the entire row or column.
   Adjacent rows or columns	Drag across the row or column headings. Or select the first row or column; then hold down SHIFT while you select the last row or column.
   Nonadjacent rows or columns	Click the column or row heading of the first row or column in your selection; then hold down CTRL while you click the column or row headings of other rows or columns that you want to add to the selection.
   More or fewer cells than the active selection	Hold down SHIFT while you click the last cell that you want to include in the new selection. The rectangular range between the active cell (active cell: The selected cell in which data is entered when you begin typing. Only one cell is active at a time. The active cell is bounded by a heavy border.) and the cell that you click becomes the new selection.

   Note  To cancel a selection of cells, click any cell on the worksheet.

2. On the Format menu, click Cells.
3. On the Alignment tab, do one of the following:
   • To change the horizontal alignment of the cell contents, click the alignment that you want in the Horizontal box.

     Note  If you choose the Fill or Center Across Selection horizontal alignment option, text rotation will be disabled for those cells.

   • To change the vertical alignment of the cell contents, click the alignment that you want in the Vertical box.
   • To indent the cell contents, click Left (Indent), Right (Indent), or Distributed (Indent) in the Horizontal box, and then type the amount of indentation that you want (in characters) in the Indent box.
   • To display the cell contents vertically from top to bottom, under Orientation, click the box that contains the vertical text.
   • To rotate the text in a cell, under Orientation, click or drag the indicator to the angle that you want, or type an angle in the Degrees box.

     Note  If you save the workbook in another file format, the rotated text may not be displayed at the correct angle. Most file formats do not support rotation within the full 180 degrees (+90 through –90 degrees) that is possible in Microsoft Office Excel 2003. For example, earlier versions of Excel can rotate text only at angles of +90, 0 (zero), or –90 degrees.

   • To restore the default alignment of selected cells, click General in the Horizontal box.

Tips

• To quickly left-align, center, or right-align your data, click Align Left , Center , or Align Right on the Formatting toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, press ALT and then SHIFT+F10.). To quickly increase or decrease the data indentation, click Increase Indent or Decrease Indent .
• To center or align data that spans several columns or rows, such as column and row labels, first merge (merged cell: A single cell that is created by combining two or more selected cells. The cell reference for a merged cell is the upper-left cell in the original selected range.) a selected range of cells. Then you can select the merged cell and reposition the text as described in the preceding steps. For information about how to merge cells, click Merge or split cells or cell contents.

Notes

• Excel cannot rotate indented cells or cells that are formatted with the Center Across Selection or Fill alignment option in the Horizontal box of the Alignment tab (Cells command, Format menu). If all the selected cells have these conflicting alignment formats, the text rotation options under Orientation are not available. If the selection includes cells that are formatted with other, nonconflicting alignment options, the rotation options are available. However, cells formatted with a conflicting alignment format are not rotated.
• If you save the workbook in another file format, the rotated text may be lost or not displayed at the correct angle. Most file formats do not support rotation within the full 180 degrees (+90 through –90 degrees) that is possible in Microsoft Office Excel 2003. For example, earlier versions of Excel can rotate text only at angles of +90, 0 (zero), or –90 degrees. If the specified angle of rotation cannot be maintained in the other file format, the text is not rotated.