How to Enter and Make a New Line in an Excel Cell

In this tutorial, you will learn how to enter and make a new line in an excel cell.

When you use excel, you may sometimes want to input a text to a cell. If you need to make a new line in your text input, however, you cannot just press enter. Doing that will only make your cell cursor move to the cell below where you input your text.

So, what to do so we can enter and make a new line in our text? Here, we will discuss 4 methods you can use to do just that (plus one alternative method which can give the same result).

Learn them all and choose the most appropriate method for your excel work!

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How to Enter and Make a New Line in Excel 1: Keyboard Buttons

This first method that we will discuss is probably the most common way people use to enter a text in excel.

The keyboard buttons we should use are Alt + Enter (Control + Option + Return in Mac). Just press those buttons simultaneously while you type your text in excel and you will move yourself to a new line!

For example, let’s say we have this text in excel.



Here is what happens after we press Alt + Enter (Control + Option + Return in Mac) just before “Text in Line 2” there.



Simple, isn’t it? Just use the buttons when you type your text in an excel cell!

How to Enter and Make a New Line in Excel 2: CHAR(10) Formula

What if you want to get a text result from your formula with different lines for parts of the text? You cannot use the Alt + Enter method to make the new lines for that, right?

Well, don’t worry because excel provides a solution for that too. We can use the CHAR formula with the input of 10 (13 if you use excel version 2016 or prior in Mac) to make a new line for the formula result.

Just input the CHAR(10) formula in the part where you want a new line for the text result.

For example, let’s say we want to combine this text using CONCATENATE in excel.



What to do if we want to put each of the concatenated data in a different line in our text result? Just input CHAR(10) before you input the data you want to move into a new line.

For this example, the CONCATENATE with the CHAR(10) input becomes like this.



As you can see, with the CHAR(10) formula, you can get a new line in your text too!

How to Enter and Make a New Line in Excel 3: Text Editor Application (Word, Notepad, etc)

By using your text editor application, you can also make new lines for your text in excel. If it is in a text editor, then you can enter your text normally to make a new line.

Just copy the text in your excel cell, open a text editor application, and paste it there. Make the new lines you want in your text before copying the text again and pasting it in your excel cell. The text will already be divided into new lines in your excel cell!

Note that you need to be in the edit mode in your cell before you paste the text in excel. If not, then you will paste your text across rows per each line instead.

For the implementation example, let’s say we have this text we want to divide into different lines in excel.



Using the text editor application method, we copy the text and paste it into a text editor of our choice (Word in this example). Then, we make new lines in the text there using the enter button.



Next, we copy the text in the text editor after we have divided the lines of our text there. We paste that text into our cell during its edit mode. Your text has been divided into lines as you divided it in your text editor!

How to Enter and Make a New Line in Excel 4: Find & Replace (for Windows Only)

You can also make new lines in your text in an excel cell using the find & replace feature. You can only this method if you have your excel in a Windows OS, though.

To make it easier to understand this method, see the following example. Let’s say we want to make new lines in this text in excel.





We want to make new lines in the appropriate places in the text (before “Text in New Line 2” and “Text in New Line 3”). How to do that using the find & replace method?

First, we mark the places in the text where we want the new lines to be. You can mark it using anything you want. For this example, we use a comma symbol ( , ) to do the marking.



After that, we highlight the cells where the text we want to make new lines in is. Then, click the Find & Select dropdown in the Home tab of excel and choose Replace….



In the Find what: text box, type the symbol you use as the mark of new line locations in your text. In the Replace with: text box, press the Ctrl + J buttons on your keyboard. Those buttons are a shortcut to enter a line break character from the ASCII character set.



If you want to keep the symbols you use as the new lines mark, then do this. Type the symbol in the Replace with: text box too.

After that, click the Replace All button and then the Close button. You have inserted lines in the text where your marks previously are!

CONCAT/CONCATENATE Using New Lines as Separators

If you have understood the second method explanation above, then you should understand this part easily. We use the CHAR(10) formula to combine data into one text using CONCATENATE with new lines as separators.

If you use excel 2019, you may also use CONCAT as the formula to combine your data (CONCAT is only available since excel 2019). The usage principles of CONCAT are quite similar to CONCATENATE (with the exception that CONCAT can accept cell range inputs while CONCATENATE can’t).

To make new lines as separators in your CONCAT/CONCATENATE result, just input CHAR(10) in the formula. Input it in locations where you want the new lines to separate parts of your text result.

Don’t forget to turn on the wrap text setting too in the cell where you put your CONCAT/CONCATENATE formula. Failure to do so will make your text won’t show its new lines in the cell display.

For an illustration, let’s take a look at the screenshot below.



Here, we want to combine the data with new lines as separators for each. As you can see, we can do it easily by combining CONCATENATE and CHAR(10) (if you want to use CONCAT, then the writing is the same as CONCATENATE).

Just input your CHAR(10) in the appropriate places in the CONCATENATE and you are good to go! The text result from your CONCATENATE will have new lines in the places you want!

Alternative Method: Using Wrap Text

Besides using the methods discussed above, you can also use wrap text to automatically add new lines to your text. The difference with the other methods is you don’t determine the locations of the new lines in your text here. They depend on your column width and your text length if you solely use wrap text to add the new lines.

The implementation of wrap text is easy. For example, let’s say you have this text. Just turn on the wrap text by clicking its button in the Home tab if you want to use it.



By doing that, your text will automatically adjust itself into lines to fit its column width.



If you want to add new lines to your text manually, then use one of the methods we discussed earlier instead!

Exercise

After learning how to make new lines in your text in an excel cell using various methods, let’s do an exercise! This is so you can practice your understanding so you can be better at using it!

Download the exercise file below and do all the following instructions. Take a look at the steps for the methods again if you are confused about how to finish the exercise.

Link to the exercise file:
Download here

Instruction:

Try to make the data in sheet A become like its example in sheet B. Use the method you prefer from those that you have learned!

How is the result? Can you do the instruction?

Additional Note

You should use the CHAR(10) method whenever you need new lines in a formula result. If you are currently typing your text, then you can use the Alt + Enter method instead.



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