Formatting vertical text in a column

Ed... you cannot do do that in Excel. What you could do do is to use a text box instead. That way you can align the text box without respect to the cells. Or you could use an image (or an image linked to a resized cell on a different sheet, if you need the text to be variable without using macros...).

Tai

p.s. Welcome to the board and kudos on not merging!

Thanks very much. I am mildly surprised and disappointed that I cannot accomplish my task as intially intended. As a crude work-around, I suppose I could break up the text in 2-3 letter bites and enter them in cell by cell. Would also adversely affect readability.

Why would you not want to use a text box or image linked to a properly-sized cell on a hidden worksheet? What are you trying to accomplish, that isn't accomplished by these means?

taigovinda, do you want to hate me now or later?

<TABLE style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-LEFT: 2pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 2pt; FONT-FAMILY: Calibri,Arial; FONT-SIZE: 11pt" border=1 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><COLGROUP><COL style="WIDTH: 30px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><COL style="WIDTH: 86px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"><COL style="WIDTH: 25px"></COLGROUP><TBODY><TR style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><TD></TD><TD>A</TD><TD>B</TD><TD>C</TD><TD>D</TD><TD>E</TD><TD>F</TD><TD>G</TD><TD>H</TD><TD>I</TD><TD>J</TD><TD>K</TD><TD>L</TD><TD>M</TD><TD>N</TD><TD>O</TD></TR><TR style="HEIGHT: 73px"><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 8pt">3</TD><TD>A few short words to see if this works or not.</TD><TD></TD><TD>A fe</TD><TD>w sh</TD><TD>ort </TD><TD>word</TD><TD>s to</TD><TD>see</TD><TD>if </TD><TD>this</TD><TD>wor</TD><TD>ks o</TD><TD>r no</TD><TD>t.</TD><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


<TABLE style="BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: groove; BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #00ff00; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: groove; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fffcf9; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #00ff00; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: groove; COLOR: #000000; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #00ff00; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: groove; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #00ff00"><TBODY><TR><TD>Spreadsheet Formulas</TD></TR><TR><TD><TABLE style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 9pt" border=1 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2><TBODY><TR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cacaca; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><TD>Cell</TD><TD>Formula</TD></TR><TR><TD>C3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:B3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>D3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:C3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>E3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:D3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>F3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:E3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>G3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:F3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>H3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:G3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>I3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:H3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>J3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:I3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>K3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:J3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>L3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:K3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>M3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:L3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>N3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:M3)),4)}</TD></TR><TR><TD>O3</TD><TD>{=MID($A$3,1+SUM(LEN($B$3:N3)),4)}</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD>Formula Array:
Produce enclosing { } by entering
formula with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER!
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


Excel tables to the web >> http://www.excel-jeanie-html.de/index.php?f=1" target="_blank"> Excel Jeanie HTML 4

It doesn't display properly on the forum, row height is set to 80 pixels,column width 25, font calibri size 11

Jason, I would never hate anyone for being better than me at Excel!

I thought, though, that the text was supposed to run vertically and keep going down, crossing into the cells below...

I think you're right, looks like I misread the requirement, it should still work if dragged down though, provided that a multi-cell formula approach is acceptable for edjohnson1.

I'm far from better than you with excel, just lucky, that was one of those wild ideas that shouldn't have worked, but for some reason did

jasonb75 said:

I'm far...better than you with excel...for some reason

Click to expand...

I know, I know, I've seen some of your other posts. No need to rub it in though!

Edjohnson, if you set up a hidden sheet and use the paint bucket to make one column white, I really think you can use the linked picture to make it look exactly like what you described...Although agreed it's annoying that the letters won't just carry past that row border...

edjohnson1 said:

I want to enter a short (< 10 words) text string in vertical format in a column. The problem is that I want the text to spill into adjacent cells, vertically, the way text would normally do horizontally.

Click to expand...

Assuming your text is in A1, enter this in A2: =MID(A$1,ROW(A2)-ROW(A$2)+1,1) and copy down.

If your text is somewhere else, change the A$1 to point to it. If you want the vertical letters to appear somewhere else, change the A2 and A$2 to point to the first location where you want them to appear, then copy down.

This formula will survive being dragged around and won't break if it runs out of letters to display.

Is that what you were looking for?

As an alternative to using a cell to hold the text, place this in A1: =MID("This is my text",ROW(A1)-ROW(A$1)+1,1), and copy down as far as is necessary.

If you need it in Z99, enter: =MID("This is a test",ROW(Z99)-ROW(Z$99)+1,1), and copy down.

Am I along the right lines?