How to Add a Line Break Inside an Excel Cell — Alt+Enter, Wrap Text & CHAR(10)

You're typing inside an Excel cell and hit Enter — but instead of a new line, you jump to the cell below. Sound familiar? In Excel, breaking to a new line within the same cell requires a different approach. This guide covers three methods: manual line breaks (Alt+Enter), automatic Wrap Text, and CHAR(10) in formulas — everything you need for day-to-day office work.

Method 1: Manual Line Break — Alt+Enter

This is the most direct method. Double-click the cell or press F2 to enter edit mode, place your cursor where you want the line break, then press Alt+Enter. The line splits right there, inside the same cell.

• Windows: Alt + Enter
• Mac: Ctrl + Option + Enter or ⌘ + Option + Enter

After pressing the shortcut, the cursor drops to a new line within the cell. Finish editing and press Enter or click another cell to exit edit mode.

A manually inserted line break is independent of column width. Even if you widen the column, the break stays exactly where you placed it.

Method 2: Wrap Text — Automatic Line Breaks by Column Width

If your text is long and spills past the cell boundary, you can let Excel wrap it automatically based on the column width — no manual breaks needed.

1. Select the cell or range you want to wrap.
2. Go to the Home tab on the ribbon and click Wrap Text.

With Wrap Text on, any content that exceeds the column width wraps to the next line within the cell. Narrow the column and more lines appear; widen it and they collapse back.

Row height adjusts automatically. If the row doesn't expand to show all lines, double-click the row border between row numbers to trigger AutoFit Row Height, or right-click the row number and choose "Row Height… AutoFit."

To center content vertically and horizontally after wrapping, use the alignment buttons in the Home → Alignment group, or open Format Cells (Ctrl+1) and adjust under the Alignment tab.

Method 3: Line Breaks in Formulas — CHAR(10)

When you're building content with a formula — for example, combining values from multiple cells — you can insert a line break using the character code CHAR(10).

To join a name in A1 and a department in B1 with a line break between them:

=A1&CHAR(10)&B1

After entering the formula, you must enable Wrap Text on that cell for the line break to be visible. Without Wrap Text, CHAR(10) is embedded in the value but won't render on screen.

You can also combine CHAR(10) with TEXTJOIN to join a range of cells, each on its own line:

=TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10),TRUE,A1:A5)

This places the contents of A1 through A5 into a single cell, one per line. Again, Wrap Text must be on.

Google Sheets — Same Shortcuts Apply

Good news: Google Sheets handles in-cell line breaks almost identically to Excel.

• Manual line break: Alt + Enter (or Ctrl + Enter)
• Wrap Text: Format menu → Text wrapping → Wrap, or click the wrap icon in the toolbar
• Formula: CHAR(10) works the same way; Wrap Text must be enabled

On Mac, use Ctrl + Option + Enter or ⌘ + Option + Enter — identical to Excel on Mac.

Related Tool

Once your spreadsheet is ready, need to share it as a PDF? Use Word & Excel → PDF conversion to export your file with formatting intact — including in-cell line breaks and cell styles.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is the Mac shortcut for a line break inside an Excel cell?
On Mac, press Ctrl + Option + Enter or ⌘ + Option + Enter while in cell edit mode. Both shortcuts insert a line break; try the other if one doesn't work for your version of Excel.

Q. I pressed Alt+Enter but the cell still looks like one line. Why?
The line break is there, but either the row height is too small or Wrap Text is turned off. Double-click the row border to AutoFit Row Height, and make sure Wrap Text is enabled on the Home tab.

Q. I used CHAR(10) in my formula but the line break isn't showing.
The cell needs Wrap Text enabled. Select the cell, go to Home, and click Wrap Text. The line break will then render correctly.

Q. How do I remove all line breaks from cells at once?
Open Find & Replace (Ctrl+H), click in the "Find what" field and press Ctrl+J (this inserts the line-break character). Leave "Replace with" empty (or type a space) and click Replace All to strip line breaks across the selection.