Simulating Alt+Enter in a Formula

Kirk has a formula that concatenates text values: =A1 & A2 & A3. He is looking for a way to simulate the pressing of Alt+Enter between each of the concatenated values. There are two ways that this can be approached, and both end up with the same results.

The first method is to simply press Alt+Enter between the values as you are entering the formula. For instance, consider the following formula:

=A1 & "[ae]" & A2 & "[ae]" & A3

In this instance, every place that you see [ae] you would actually press Alt+Enter. Thus, you would end up with a formula that looked like this just before entering it:

=A1 & "
" & A2 & "
" & A3

If you find entering this type of formula distracting, you can always use the actual character code that Excel does whenever you press Alt+Enter. The following formula shows this approach:

=A1 & CHAR(10) & A2 & CHAR(10) & A3

The CHAR(10) inserts a line feed character, which is the same as is done by Excel when you press Alt+Enter.

If, after entering your formula, you don't see the results on separate lines, it is because you don't have wrapping turned on for the cell. Instead you'll see a small square box where the line feed character is located. To see the results of the formula on separate lines, display the Format Cells dialog box (click Format | Cells or, in Word 2007, click the small icon at the lower-right of the Alignment group on the Home tab of the ribbon). On the Alignment tab select the Wrap Text check box.