Indentations aren’t confined to word processors like Microsoft Word, or to writing. They can be super useful when it comes to spreadsheets, too!
To learn how to indent in Microsoft Excel, simply follow our step-by-step tutorials below. For all other information, or if you have any further questions you need to be answered, we recommend you check out our FAQ section at the end of this article.
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How to indent in Excel (keyboard shortcut)
- Open the Excel program on your computer or device, and open a document (either a test blank one, or one you’re currently working on).
- Select a cell which has some data in it (text or numbers) by left-clicking it
- To increase the indent of that cell, thus moving its contents further away from the border and its default alignment (i.e. away from the left or right, depending) using the keyboard shortcut, hit ALT + H + 6 on your keyboard.
- To decrease the indent of that cell, thus moving its contents closer to the border and its default alignment (i.e. toward the left or right, depending) using the keyboard shortcut, hit ALT + H + 5 on your keyboard.
- To increase the indent of that cell, thus moving its contents further away from the border and its default alignment (i.e. away from the left or right, depending) using the keyboard shortcut, hit ALT + H + 6 on your keyboard.
- You can indent the same cell multiple times, increasing or decreasing the indent with each use of the corresponding keyboard shortcut
- Note: Once the contents of a cell are aligned right up to the cell’s border (as they are as default), you cannot decrease the indent, because there hasn’t been an indent made yet.
- Note: If you increase the indent until the contents of the cell reach the other side of the border, then each subsequent use of the ‘increase indent’ function will widen that cell’s whole column accordingly.
- Open the Excel program on your computer or device, and open a document (either a test blank one, or one you’re currently working on).
- Select a cell which has some data in it (text or numbers) by left-clicking it
- To increase the indent of that cell, thus moving its contents further away from the border and its default alignment (i.e. away from the left or right, depending) using the ribbon button, locate the ‘Increase Indent’ button in the ‘Alignment’ section of the Home tab, and left-click it.
- To increase the indent of that cell, thus moving its contents closer to the border and its default alignment (i.e. toward the left or right, depending) using the ribbon button, locate the ‘Decrease Indent’ button in the ‘Alignment’ section of the Home tab, and left-click it.
- To increase the indent of that cell, thus moving its contents further away from the border and its default alignment (i.e. away from the left or right, depending) using the ribbon button, locate the ‘Increase Indent’ button in the ‘Alignment’ section of the Home tab, and left-click it.
- You can indent the same cell multiple times, increasing or decreasing the indent with each use of the corresponding Alignment ribbon button.
- Note: Once the contents of a cell are aligned right up to the cell’s border (as they are as default), you cannot decrease the indent, because there hasn’t been an indent made yet.
- Note: If you increase the indent until the contents of the cell reach the other side of the border, then each subsequent use of the ‘increase indent’ function will widen that cell’s whole column accordingly.
And there you have it! How to indent, and how to manipulate that indent, all laid out for you in two easy-to-use methods: button and keyboard shortcut. If you’d like any more information or have any further questions, please refer to our FAQs below.
FAQs
What does ‘indent’ in Microsoft Excel mean?
Indentation in Microsoft Excel serves the same purpose as it would in Microsoft Word, for example. An indent is a space that pushes the content of a cell out from its current alignment. As standard, Microsoft Excel aligns text-based cells to the left, and number-based cells to the right. An indent would push text a little further to the right, and numbers a little further to the left.
How do you use an indent in Microsoft Excel?
Indents can be used for any number of reasons, and to serve a whole host of different functions in Microsoft Excel. For one, they are a useful formatting tool, allowing you to design and layout your spreadsheet in a manner that makes it easier to read, and thus more accessible to those you might be presenting it to.
On the other hand, indentations could be used to distinguish one set of data from another, or may just be a personal style choice, which you feel serves the document better. Whatever your reasons for using indents in Excel, follow our tutorials above to learn how to insert them.
Can you indent individual lines within text cells which contain multiple lines of text?
Unfortunately, once you open a cell to edit it, the indentation options described in our tutorials above are grayed out (meaning that you cannot employ them when editing within a cell). In other words, you can only use Microsoft Excel’s indentation options to indent the entire contents of a cell.
If you would like to indent individual lines in a cell which has multiple lines of text (or numbers) within it, you can still do so, but the solution is a little less elegant than those methods described above.
Say, you have someone’s address typed out in one cell, for example, and you want to indent every line of the address bar at the top one. What you need to do is to double-click the cell (or left-click it and press F2), in order to open it for editing. Next, click at the start of the first line of text/numbers you wish to indent, and then manually indent the line by using the spacebar. Repeat as necessary with subsequent lines.
