Numbers: Wrap Text not working

[tobindia]

I'm embarrassed to be posting this, because it has to be trivial, but it's really frustrating! I have a spreadsheet with many cells where the "Wrap Text" box is checked. However, the text in some cells does not wrap onto the next line. The text is composed of simple alphanumeric characters. Even when I insert a "soft return" (option-return), the text doesn't wrap. What am I missing?

 

[Ember1205]

Have you formatted the input as text? I'm wondering if it won't "wrap text" because it doesn't know that it IS text?

 

[tobindia]

I'm not sure what you mean by "formatted,' but the Data Format of the Cell was "Automatic." When I changed it to "Text," it still didn't wrap. The Font of the text is Arial, Regular, 14 points.

 

[Ember1205]

It will not wrap a single string of characters - the Wrap function kicks in using blank spaces between strings of characters. If you're working with one, long character string, that isn't going to wrap for you.

 

[toMACsh]

Try changing the height of the row.

 

[tobindia]

It is not a single string.

When I change the height of the row, the text does wrap. Also, if I select the cell or the entire row, and then click on the down arrow next to the row number, and select "Fit height to content," the row increases in height, and the text wraps. (Probably the same thing as changing the row height directly.)

So, that solves the immediate problem. (And I thank you, toMACsh!!), but still why doesn't the "Wrap text in cell" box word? Oh, well.

 

[MacInWin]

but still why doesn't the "Wrap text in cell" box word? Oh, well.

It does work, exactly as advertised. If the cell height isn't sufficient for wrap, it doesn't. (Wouldn't make any difference anyway, the wrapped text wouldn't be visible in the short cell.) But make the cell taller so it fits and it wraps. But hey, as you found out, let it adjust when it needs to.

It's working.

EDIT: How in the world does "But hey" become "Betray hep?" Did you hear that the inventor of auto spell check died? May he restaurant in peas.

 

[bobtomay]

Likely works the same as Excel. I'm using at least 3 different versions of Excel between the office and home and they all seem to do the same thing - about 10% of the time wrapping text will auto adjust the row height and 90% of the time I have to do it manually. I've not been able to figure out what is different between spreadsheets that it won't auto adjust row height all the time.

 

[toMACsh]

When I change the height of the row, the text does wrap. Also, if I select the cell or the entire row, and then click on the down arrow next to the row number, and select "Fit height to content," the row increases in height, and the text wraps. (Probably the same thing as changing the row height directly.)

It's beyond me why "fit" is not the default. But, it is working the way it was programmed.

You're quite welcome. Glad I could help.

 

[SeniorMoment]

In my case, this appears to be a Numbers bug which happens using tables that were created several versions ago in Numbers. I am using the latest Numbers (10.1) and MacOS (Catalina 10.15). When I create any new table, the word wrapping always properly increases the row height, when wrapping is turned on the cell. Yet, wrapping fails on several of my older tables. All I can suggest is to create a new version of your table with the problem, not by Copying the table and then Pasting, but by inserting a new table and then copy and pasting all the data that is in the older table into the newer one.

 

[toMACsh]

Good tip, even given that this thread is more than four years old.