How to paste multiple lines into multiple cells in Excel

by Alexander Frolov | updated on August 25, 2022

When you have a lot of text in your Excel cells it can be a good idea to show it on more than one line. But how? Every time you enter text into a cell it longs to be on one line however long it is.

Here is how you can insert more than one line into one cell on your Excel worksheet.

Say you have a column with full names in your table and want to get the first and last ones on different lines. With these simple steps you can control exactly where the line breaks will be.

Click on the cell where you need to enter multiple lines of text.
Type the first line.
Press Alt + Enter to add another line to the cell.

Tip. Keep pressing Alt + Enter until the cursor is where you would like to type your next line of text.
Type the next line of text you would like in the cell.
Press Enter to finish up.

So just don't forget the Alt + Enter shortcut to get a line break at a specific point in a cell regardless of the cells width.

Supposing you have multiline cell content which is separated by Alt + Enter, and now you need to split the multiline contents to separated rows or columns, what can you do? In this artical, you will learn how to quickly split multiline cell contents into separated rows or columns.

Split multiline cell contents into separate columns with Text to Columns function
Easily split multiline cell contents into separate rows or columns with Kutools for Excel

Split multiline cell contents into separate columns with Text to Columns function

With the Text to Columns function, you can split multiline cell contents into separate columns.

1. Select the cells with multiline contents you want to split to separate columns, then click Data > Text to Columns. See screenshot:

2. In the first Convert Text to Columns Wizard dialog box, select Delimited option, and then click the Next button.

3. In the second Convert Text to Columns Wizard dialog box, only check the Other box, hold the Alt key and enter number 0010 into the following blank box. Then click the Next button. See screenshot:

4. In the third Convert Text to Columns Wizard dialog box, select a cell for placing the split contents in the Destination box, and finally click the Finish button.

Then the selected multiline cells’ contents are split into separated columns as below screenshot shown.

Split multiline cell contents into separate rows or columns with Kutools for Excel

If you want to split the multiline cell contents to multiple rows, the Text To Column feature may not help you. But, the Split Cells utility of Kutools for Excel can help you quickly split multiline cell contents into separate rows or columns. Please do as follows.

Before applying Kutools for Excel, please download and install it firstly.

1. Select the cells with multiline contents you want to split to separate rows or columns, then click Kutools > Merge & Split > Split Cells. See screenshot:

2. In the Split Cells dialog box, you need to do as follows:

(1) If you want to split cells to rows, please select the Split to Rows option, otherwise, select the Split to Columns option.
(2) In the Specify a separator section, select New line option
(3) Finally click the OK button

3. In the next popping up dialog box, select a blank cell for locating the split text, and then click the OK button.

You can see the split result as bellows screenshots shown.

If you want to have a free trial ( 30-day) of this utility, please click to download it, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.

Easily split multiline cell contents into separate rows or columns with Kutools for Excel

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by garymac12 · about 15 years, 4 months ago

When I paste multiple line content into a cell in excel it automatically divides it to multiple cells by default. I would like to have all the text together in one cell without having to retype it. Any help?

- by garymac12 · about 15 years, 4 months ago
- by pringles86 · about 15 years, 4 months ago
  
  Right click the cell you are going to paste to. Then select “Format Cells…”, click the “Alignment” tab, check the “Word Wrap” checkbox, click ok, and paste your text.
  
  Let me know if this works out for you.
  - by garymac12 · about 15 years, 4 months ago
    
    Nope. It still looks at every carriage return as an opportunity to skip to the next cell.
    Word wrap allows me to type in and wraps as long as I do not hit the enter key.
    - by jennkennedy · about 15 years, 4 months ago
      
      if you click in the cell or on the formula bar so you see the blinking cursor and then paste you will have multiple lines in one cell. it is more time consuming because you can’t do many fields at once.
    - by garymac12 · about 15 years, 4 months ago
      
      Thanks, that works. This was so strange and I tried just about everything but that. Thanks again.
- by wilecoyote22 · about 14 years, 9 months ago
  
  You paste normally but the text shows up as one huge line going off the spreadsheet. Now right click and select format cell (you could highlight multiple cells if you want). Now under format cells go to the Alignment tab. There check the “wrap text” option.
  
  Now your huge line of text will wrap to a single cell. Remember that you may need to adjust your cell to your liking. I suggest you adjust the width manually and just double click on the line under the row number. That will make Excel autosize the cell vertically.
  
  Have fun
  - by mark.ivanowski · about 12 years, 9 months ago
    
    I have similar problem but I want to run a VBA code to Edit(F2), Paste and wrap(format).
- by khanhvn · about 11 years, 11 months ago
  
  double click in the cell, then paste.
  - by tobif · about 11 years, 11 months ago
    
    Quite old thread. (And a solution was already given higher up…)
- by mcwong1 · about 9 years, 8 months ago
  
  We had the same problem — pasting a chunk of text that included several paragraphs and numbered lines into a single cell — except Excel automaticallyi distributes it into multiple cells.
  
  Solution: Instead of psting into the CELL, click on the cell then paste into the data-entry bar above.
  
  Bingo — everything is in just that one cell…..!
  - by itpixie · about 9 years, 3 months ago
    
    Just the job. Thanks for the short simple solution.