If you’re a Microsoft Excel user, there’s a good chance you’ve used the “New Line” feature to create new lines in your cells. This is a great way to add extra space between cells and make your spreadsheet easier to read. But what if you want to start a new line in one of your cells but don’t know where to start? Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open the cell you want to start a new line in and click on the “New Line” button.
  2. Enter some text into the field that will be created as the new line’s starting point. For example, if you want to create a new line that starts at cell A1, enter “A1.”
  3. Click on the “OK” button and your cell will be updated with the newline’s text.

Are those long names spreading across multiple cells in your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet? If so, break up the text by starting a new line in the same cell. We’ll show you two ways to do just that.

RELATED: How to Split Data Into Multiple Columns in Excel

Start a New Line in an Excel Cell With a Keyboard Shortcut

A quick way to start a new line in an Excel cell is to use a keyboard shortcut.

RELATED: All the Best Microsoft Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

First, open your spreadsheet and type your text until you need a new line.

While your cursor is still in the cell where you were typing, press Alt+Enter (Windows) or Option+Enter (Mac). This will start a new line in your cell, and you can continue to type the rest of the text.

When you finish typing and press Enter, your cell will look like this:

To add more lines, press the same keyboard shortcut. And that’s it.

Start a New Line in an Excel Cell With a Menu Option

Another way to start a new line in an Excel cell is to use the Wrap Text feature. With this feature, you select the cells in which you want new lines and the feature automatically adds the required lines.

To use the feature, open your spreadsheet with Microsoft Excel. Then select one or more cells where you want the text to fit the size of the cell’s width.

While your cells are selected, in Excel’s ribbon at the top, click the “Home” tab.

In the “Home” tab, from the “Alignment” section, select “Wrap Text.”

Excel will automatically add new lines in your cells where the text spreads across multiple cells.

And that’s how you prevent your text from covering other cells in your Excel spreadsheets. Very handy! Read our guide for more details on wrapping text in Excel.

You can split text in Google Sheets, too.

RELATED: How to Split Text in Google Sheets