Recently came across this thing in Excel completely by accident, unsure how long it has been a thing? I’ve never ever read anything about it before on the internet or ever seen anyone using it before.
Maybe it’s been a thing forever, maybe not. Really have no idea.
Anyway, it’s one of those things when I discovered it, I was like, how have I not known this until now?
So, what on earth am I rambling about?
When in an Excel cell, you can write some text and use ALT+ENTER to move to a new line, I’ve known this forever, use it all the time. Nothing new there.
But here’s the thing, you can also use this carriage return technique within an actual Excel formula and the cell formula retains the carriage returns!
Never knew this and accidentally came across it while keyboard mashing….. I’m an amateur two-finger typist, 31 words per minute (just took an online test for the first time ever to fully establish my amateur status….).
So, for example for an IF() statement you could put the ‘logical test’ part on one line, the ‘value if true’ on another, and the ‘value if false’ on another line. Neat eh, but you guys probably already knew this….
In complicated formulas, this gives you some opportunity to break it down to something that’s maybe a bit easier to read and hence understand. Might be helpful in understanding some nested nightmares in the future…. job done!
In conclusion…
Guess you don’t always know what you don’t know…..
This is amazing. Thanks!