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Adding Text and Numbers to a Worksheet Tutorial

Excel 2016 Training - Data Entry and Formatting
Lesson
Free Online Microsoft Excel Tutorials

* How to add text or numbers to cells

* How to align cell content
* Resizing rows and columns to fit cell contents
* Fitting contents to column width
* How to add paragraphs to cells
* How to edit and delete cell contents
Adding text or numerical values to a worksheet requires the ability to insert, edit, t and delete
cell contents. Master the Excel grid of cells, rows and columns by adding headings, paragraphs,
row or column headings and capturing values.

Test your Excel skills with the corresponding FREE Online Multiple Choice
Adding Text and Numbers to a Worksheet - 2016 Excel Basics Test (/microsoft-office/excel-2016/tests/2-
data-entry-and-formatting/1-adding-text-and-numbers-to-a-worksheet/index.html)

* How to add text or numbers to cells

When you use Microsoft Excel for the rst few times and attempt to insert data such as text or
numbers, you may nd the Excel screen puzzling. Di erent to normal text editors, the Excel screen is
made up of a grid, not a blank page, and data is organized into rows and columns comprising cells. It is
important to get a good grasp on how the Microsoft Excel screen is organized. For a refresher course on
this, see our The Different Parts of the Excel 2016 Screen Tutorial and Test. (/microsoft-office/excel-
2016/tutorials/1-learn-excel-basics/2-the-excel-screen/excel-screen-excel-basics-tutorial.html)

Excel's grid helps you to organize data with column or row headings. A good place to start is to look at
the data you wish to add to an Excel worksheet and, if the data doesn’t already have, create column or row
labels for each data type. For example, you may want to add all the names, ages and grades of students in
your class to a worksheet.

So how do we do this in Excel?

1. Open your copy of Microsoft Excel 2016 where a blank worksheet will open by default resembling the
screenshot below:

2. Click once in the rst cell (cell A1) and then type the word: NAME

ll
3. Press the Tab key on your keyboard to move to the next cell (B1) and type the word: AGE
4. Press the Tab key again and type the word: GRADE into cell (C1)
Good job! Your sheet should now look something like this:

The next step is to start lling out the data for each of these column headings, i.e. NAME, AGE and
GRADE.
1. Click in the cell below NAME (cell A2) and type a name (any name – be creative!). Press the Tab key to
move to the next cells, in the columns labelled AGEand GRADE, respectively, and add data.
2. After inserting a value under the GRADE heading, press the Enter key on your keyboard to move to
the next row (Row 3) and add a second line of data. 

How did you do? Were you able to add data to your worksheet so that it looks like the example
worksheet below?
* How to align cell content
Looking at the worksheet we created in the screenshot above, you may notice that some of the
content is positioned to the left and some to the right of the column heading, resulting in a
misaligned look.  To align text in a cell we can use Left, Center and Right alignment.

To align cell contents:

1. Select the column you wish to change alignment for by clicking on the column label. The column
label is represented by a letter of the alphabet, so, for example if you want to select the NAME column in
our example above, you will click on the A column label.
2.  Next, with the column still selected, click on the Home tab on the Ribbon and in the Alignment
group, click on the Center button.
3.  Now repeat step 1 and 2 above for the other two columns on your sheet (AGE and GRADE).

Aligning data in a worksheet is as easy as A, B, C!  See our screenshot below for a quick visual
summary of the three steps:
Other alignment options include Right, Left, Top, Middle, Bottom and indents. Go ahead and
experiment with these options too!
* Resizing rows and columns to fit cell contents
Rows and columns can be resized to t the contents of a cell or be sized to make your worksheet
look neat. When you add text or numbers to a cell, part of the text may be obscured. Have a look at column
B (outlined in orange in the screenshot below. You will note part of the surnames in column B are obscured
(speci cally Washington and Richardson):

We can resize column B to ensure the content is visible by following any of the options set out
below:

1.  Drag the column lines to enlarge the cell width (see screenshot below). Click on the column line to
the right of the column labelled B, hold down your mouse button and drag it to the right to enlarge the
column.
OR
2. Double-click the column line on either side of the column labelled B to automatically resize the
column to t the contents.
TIP: Resize selected columns at the same time to ensure the columns are all equally distributed by selecting
all the columns you wish to resize and then dragging the line to the right or left of the column to resize.
 

Rows can be resized in the same way as columns:

1. Drag the lines of an individual row downwards or upwards to increase or decrease the row height.
OR
2. Double click on the line above or below the row label to automatically resize the row to t its
contents.

TIP: Resize selected rows at the same time to ensure the rows are all equally distributed by selecting all the
rows you wish to resize and then dragging the line above or below the row label to resize.
Practice resizing individual’s rows and columns and selected groups of rows and columns until you’ve
mastered it!

* Fitting contents to column width

Resizing a column to t its contents isn’t always the solution you need, especially if the cell contents is
several lines long and you need for it to t into a speci ed space for printing or aesthetic reasons.
Consider the screenshot below: the contents of column E is considerably longer than the current
column width. This can be recti ed by resizing the column width (as discussed in the previous section) or
the text can be wrapped within a column width to ensure a better t. This is especially suitable for cells
containing long lines of text.
To wrap (or t) a paragraph within a speci ed column width:
1. Select the cell(s) or entire column containing the text you wish to t into the column width.
2. Under the Home tab on the Ribbon in the Alignment group, click on Wrap Text.
This will wrap the text lines into the column width:

The next step is to resize the row height to t the contents. You can also adjust the column width, either
increasing or decreasing the width. To resize the row height, select the rows and drag the row line on any of
the rows downwards to increase the row height.
TIP: Apply the Wrap Text function to blank cells you may later wish to t into the designated space. This will
make adding data to cells at a later stage, easier.

* How to add paragraphs to cells

Breaking up text within the same cell into paragraphs is quite a neat trick in Excel, a shortcut key
combination that is worth writing on a post-it note and sticking it on your computer screen.
If you want to add another paragraph to text within the same cell in Excel:
1. If the cell you wish to add the paragraph to isn’t currently selected, double-click the cell to select and
edit the cell contents.

2. Move the cursor to the end of the text to the spot where you wish to insert or break the text up into
another paragraph.
3. Hold down the Alt key on your keyboard and press the Enter key to create a new paragraph (see
screenshot below for the end result).
You can add as many paragraphs within the same cell as you wish!

* How to edit and delete cell contents

Now that you’ve mastered adding text and numbers, creating row and column labels, resizing rows
and columns to accommodate cell contents, and wrapping contents to ensure it ts within the column
width, let’s look at how to edit and delete cell contents.
1. To delete the contents of a cell, select the cell by clicking on it once. Press the Delete button on your
keyboard.

2. To delete the contents of a row or column, select the row or column by clicking on their label (e.g.
column A, Row 1, etc) and press the Delete button on your keyboard.
For more advanced Delete options:
1. Select the cell, row or column you wish to delete; and
2. Under the Home tab on the Ribbon, in the Cells group, click on the dropdown arrow below the Delete
button:

You can select to Delete Cells, Delete Rows, Delete Columns and Delete Sheet quickly using these
options.
Now you have done the tutorial:
Test your Excel skills with the corresponding FREE Online Multiple Choice
Adding Text and Numbers to a Worksheet - 2016 Excel Basics Test (/microsoft-office/excel-2016/tests/2-
data-entry-and-formatting/1-adding-text-and-numbers-to-a-worksheet/index.html)

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EXCEL 2016 INDEX - TUTORIALS & TESTS

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and-formatting/1-adding-text-and-
numbers-to-a-worksheet/adding-text-
and-numbers-to-a-worksheet-excel-2016-
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1. Adding Text & Numbers to a Worksheet

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adding-text-and-numbers-to-a-
worksheet/index.html)

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Excel 2016 (/microsoft-o ce/excel-
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TEST - Excel 2016 (/microsoft-o ce/excel-
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