make text spread across a few cells

**BettaMan** · 11-12-2007, 07:35 PM

Ok got a few questions, these questions might seem stupid but i have no clue about excel! I am making a staff rostering program. I am using Excel 2007.

Questions

1) How to a make text spread across a few cells, i have text in a colum that i want to make smaller but the text gets cut off, how do i make it spread across a few cells, tried looking in 'format cells' but havent be able to work it out.

2) I have been using data vailidation to make drop down list for times, the times are 9am - 9pm, 8am - 5pm, etc. Is there anyway of using a formula to calculate these times in excel from a drop down list after the option has been choosen in that list? for example the list is in A1, i have choosen the time 8am- 5pm and i want to calculate the number of hours for the choosen time in A2, is this possible?

3) One of the options in the drop down list is 'not needed' i have another cell made up called 'not required'. Is it possible that when the drop down list is used and 'not needed' is selected make cell A3 = 'not required' so when 'not needed' is selected cell A3 automically brings up 'not required'?

4)What do the blue lines mean around spreadsheets? how do you put them there?

5)Is there a way of stopping duplicates of staff being assigned to the same time on the same day. A warning message or something would be good.

Im sure i will have a few more questions in the future

Thanks for your help.

**tuph** · 11-13-2007, 01:05 AM

I don't think I can answer all of your questions, but here goes. (Adjust the cell references to suit your worksheet.)

1) How to a make text spread across a few cells, i have text in a colum that i want to make smaller but the text gets cut off, how do i make it spread across a few cells, tried looking in 'format cells' but havent be able to work it out.

If your text is in cell A1 and you want to spread it across cells A1:A3 select those three cells, right click and select Format Cells, Aligment. Place a tick beside Merge Cells and click OK.

2) I have been using data vailidation to make drop down list for times, the times are 9am - 9pm, 8am - 5pm, etc. Is there anyway of using a formula to calculate these times in excel from a drop down list after the option has been choosen in that list? for example the list is in A1, i have choosen the time 8am- 5pm and i want to calculate the number of hours for the choosen time in A2, is this possible?

One way is to add a second column to your lookup table and enter the total hours in there. Then, assuming your drop down list of times is in column E, in column F enter =VLOOKUP(E1,A1:B10,2,false) and drag the formula down the column to paste it into all cells. Refer to Excel's help for details of how VLOOKUP works.

3) One of the options in the drop down list is 'not needed' i have another cell made up called 'not required'. Is it possible that when the drop down list is used and 'not needed' is selected make cell A3 = 'not required' so when 'not needed' is selected cell A3 automically brings up 'not required'?

In A3 put =IF(A2="not needed","not required","")

4)What do the blue lines mean around spreadsheets? how do you put them there?

They display the boundaries of the print area - anything outside the blue lines will not be printed. You will only see them in Page Break Preview mode and they will only appear if a Print Area has been defined under File, Print Area, Set Print Area.

5)Is there a way of stopping duplicates of staff being assigned to the same time on the same day. A warning message or something would be good

Unable to help with this one.

Good luck!