Enter multiple lines in a single Excel cell

When you have a lot of text in your Excel cells it can be a good idea to show it on more than one line. But how? Every time you enter text into a cell it longs to be on one line however long it is.

Here is how you can insert more than one line into one cell on your Excel worksheet. Enter more than one line in a single Excel cell.

The detailed instructions to start a new line in a cell are provided: 3 ways to insert a line break in Excel.

5 steps to insert multiple lines into a cell

Say you have a column with full names in your table and want to get the first and last ones on different lines. With these simple steps you can control exactly where the line breaks will be.

  1. Click on the cell where you need to enter multiple lines of text.
  2. Type the first line.
  3. Press Alt + Enter to add another line to the cell.

    Tip. Keep pressing Alt + Enter until the cursor is where you would like to type your next line of text.

  4. Type the next line of text you would like in the cell.
  5. Press Enter to finish up.

So just don't forget the Alt + Enter shortcut to get a line break at a specific point in a cell regardless of the cells width.

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119 comments

  1. Thank you. Got it the first time!

  2. How to I split the cell in half to include a line in between the text?

  3. Thanku for this informative message. It's very helpful for those who are working on Excel on the daily basis.

  4. Seriously is a good one, I was helped with this post...

  5. Thank you so much! the steps worked for me. It solved the problem I got in my data.

  6. Hi, I have a Mac Pro and trying to (not sure) put cells within one cell. I don't have an Alt key, but it says to use the Options key, but that doesn't seem to work.
    Thanks in advance!

  7. I am trying to put multiple hashtags/categories into one cell in a single row, in order to analyze the data based on each hashtag/category individually. I am putting the data into a Pivot Table, but I can't get excel to associate the data with each hashtag/category individually. For example:

    Row 1: Post Date | Post Category | Post Hashtag 1, Post Hashtag 2, Post Hashtag 3 | Impressions | Engagement Rate
    Row 2: Post Date | Post Category | Post Hashtag 2, Post Hashtag 3 | Impressions | Engagement Rate
    Row 3: Post Date | Post Category | None | Impressions | Engagement Rate

    I am trying to analyze which hashtags had the most impressions, but when I load into a pivot table it creates that categories like this:
    - Post Hashtag 1, Post Hashtag 2, Post Hashtag 3
    - Post Hashtag 2, Post Hashtag 3
    - Post Hashtag 2, Post Hashtag 3

    When I want this:
    - Post Hashtag 1
    - Post Hashtag 2
    - Post Hashtag 3
    - None

    When a post has multiple hashtags, I want it to be included in each individual hashtag's data.
    Help!

  8. This did not work for me. When I pushed Alt and Enter, it just skipped to the next cell.

    • I have the same problem. Do you find your answer yet?

    • I did that too. So on my computer if I just went ahead and typed on that next line in the cell below it and then did alt/enter it moved it back up to the cell I was working on.

  9. This is useful for putting more than one entry in a cell, but how can I make Excel understand the separate lines as separate values for when I want to look at something like "Column Stats"? If I have a list of things, and I want to have a column for "Category," is it possible to make the items in the list have more than one category?

    A Category
    1 Blue Color
    2 Apple Fruit
    3 Orange Color, Fruit
    4 Kiwi Fruit

    When I do it like this with a comma or with a line break, the column stats return with:
    Color: 1
    Fruit: 2
    Color, Fruit: 1

    instead of...

    Color: 2
    Fruit: 3

    Please help this is killing me.

  10. Thanks so much, I couldn't get the CHAR(10) version of it working as I was missing "" for the text strong or else the = sign, but got it working afterwards.

    I had to do CHAR(10) and also had to word wrap the cells too: select all cells(the little arrow between the A and 1 top left of the screen) and choose the Home | "Wrap Text" for ALL cells

    I'm using Excel 2007 on Windows 11

    Exact Cell formula:

    =E10&" "&F10&CHAR(10)&I10&CHAR(10)&H10&CHAR(10)&"Ireland"

    Which Gives:

    Forename Surname
    Address
    Postcode
    Country

    Thanks again, hope this helps someone else in the same situation

  11. Hello,

    I am attempting to get rid of line breaks in a document so they are stacked on top of each other in the same cell like so:

    red
    blue
    green
    black

    and not

    red,blue,green,black

    I can not figure out a formula or find and replace to do this to the many sheets i have assigned to me. ANY help is appreciated as this has just been given to me and is due tomorrow. Thank you.

  12. Can each line include a formula?
    =L2&" | "&K2&" Stars"&" "
    &G2&": "&H2

      • When I type 2 formulas in both lines of a cell, it shows "FALSE" as output

  13. thank you for your help it's very useful

  14. I cant believe with all the power that excel has that it impossible to set a cell to start a new line just by pressing enter without having to go through the Alt ect process. I am putting together a spread sheet for techs to complete and as they type the info into the cell each bit of info should be on a separate line in the same cell, they would just hit enter.
    There must be a way that a cell can accept enter as an add a new line without all the issues of alt key etc
    much the same way this dialogue box works.

    Any help always appreciated.

  15. Alt Enter seems to work for up to 3 lines in a cell. After that I get #############################

  16. Thanks a lot Mr. ALEX.

  17. Hey Alex! How do I make it so that there are multiple rows in one cell? Do you know what I mean?

    • Hi!
      Have you tried the ways described in this blog post? If they don’t work for you, then please describe your task in detail.

  18. thank u

  19. Thank you very much,

    I was struggling a lot with that :)

  20. thank you sir

  21. Thanks buddy!
    What if i want to reverse the process... bringing the contents on the second line together with the contents on the first line to be on the same line "first line"?

  22. Great, thanks, didn't know this after a long time using Excel, very helpful!

  23. Thanks! Your simple explanation to my query was just what I needed. BIg help!

  24. Thanks

  25. How can I do this with currency? Alt + Enter gets rid of the currency.

    I need this:

    £100.00
    £200.00
    £300.00

    But when I use Alt + Enter I get this:

    100
    200
    300

    Can anyone help please? :)

    • Highlight the column then format the cells to that currency

  26. hey.....thank you so much. 'Alt + Enter' helps a lot

  27. Thank you ! :)

  28. Thank you for tips!
    Just saved my wife's project :D

  29. Thanks

  30. Thank you! Never knew it was so simple. Clear and easy to follow

  31. thank you.

  32. Thank you!!

  33. thanks..it worked..

  34. Thank you!

  35. When I press Alt+Enter and go to the next line, my text in the next line does not appear after pressing enter. Please help me out

    • Please increase that column/row size.

    • Believe it or not, I had to use the OTHER Alt key on my keyboard. Not sure why this is. (I found this tip after a whole bunch of searching!)

  36. Hello, I have a long text in a cell. This text needs to be in less than 4 line break. And each line can only have a maximum of 60 letter or characters. Thanks for your help!

  37. Thank you

  38. help
    for instance i have
    60% and i still want 30%,40%,70% to be below 60% as in 60% will cover all the other numbers
    pls how can i do it

  39. Thank you so very much.

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