Excel 2004 for Macs: Worksheet width

When I use Excel 2003 or 2010 at work (on a PC), the worksheet is very wide. The columns would never fit on a printed page. When I open Excel 2004 for Macs, the size of the worksheet is fitted to the printed page option (unless I open a file from work).

  1. How do I remove the paper size limitation, such that I can make a very wide spreadsheet?

  2. Column widths are in inches. How to I change it to the same units used on the PC? i.e., instead of 1" or whatever, I want to say ‘10’ or ‘12’.

Additional: How do I split lines within cells? i.e.:
123 Fake St
Anytown, USA

Instead of:
123 Fake St Anytown, USA

(At work that’s exactly how I don’t want it. For what I’m doing now, I do need multiple lines within cells.)

OK, I figured out how to do the wide worksheet thing. (Go to Normal View.)

Now how do I make it so that only the header record is frozen. Right now the page is quartered, and the whole top half is frozen.

Grab the splitter bar in the scroll bar area, and drag it to just under the first row.
(At least, that’s how I remember it…)

Thanks!

Splitting lines on Windows versions is Alt-Enter. If that doesn’t work on Mac versions, try the other modifier keys + Enter (Control, Command, etc.)

If you want word wrap, just add a blank line to the bottom of the cell by doing the above. Then you can go back and delete the line.

Or, if you need it for more than one cell, highlight all the cells you want to allow Word Wrap in*, and then right click and choose Format Cells. Then click the Alignment tab, and check the Word Wrap option.

Finally, if you want to have this or any other option from the start, you can save it as an Excel template. When saving, choose Template from the type drop down, and save that in your Office templates folder. Save it as workbook.xlt for it to be the default.

I’m still looking for information on where your Templates folder is on a Mac, but maybe you can find it yourself. It should be a subfolder of your User folder–you know, the folder that has the same name as your user name.

*If it’s every cell in the worksheet, click on the upper left corner.

I may have found the Templates folder: Try ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/. If it’s the right folder, it should have a file called “normal.dot” in it.

Not six in the ayem yet, and I haven’t had coffee…

I want to be able to split lines in cells in one column. I know how to get rid of them on the Mac, thanks to> someone in a previous thread: Copy the Excel spreadsheet into Word, Find & Replace ==> Special == Manual line break, change to nothing, copy back into a new Excel spreadsheet… And I know how to get rid of them on the PC: F&R ALT-010 to nothing. I assume I could type ALT+010 into the appropriate places (or F&R the common strings) to insert in-cell line breaks, but I’m not on a PC and can’t do ALT codes. Of course I have wrap text turned on.

I’ve attempted to insert a break by looking at the Insert menu, but didn’t find anything there. I’ve also tried Shift+Return, Shift+Alt+Return, Cmd+Return, Shift +Cmd+Return, Crtl+Return, Option+Return, Shift+Option+Return, and the same modifier keys in combination with the Enter key. No joy.

I’ve never used templates, so I’m not sure what to look for. I used Finder too look for normal.dot, and it is not found on my hard drive.

Try cmd-opt-return.

That worked! Thanks!