How to Insert Carriage Return in Excel Cell (3 Simple Ways)

Method 1 – Using Keyboard Shortcut

Let’s say a cell is describing a student studying a specific subject at a university. The data here is separated by commas. Let’s insert carriage returns to this cell to separate the info in three lines.

Steps:

• Take the cursor after the comma that separated the first text data.

• Press Alt +Enter and you will see that a new line has been created.

• Double-click on the cell and repeat for the next line.

• You will find 3 new lines in a single cell for your dataset.

Read More: Remove Carriage Return in Excel with Text to Columns

Method 2 – Insert a Carriage Return Using Formula

Let’s say we have a dataset of the name of some students studying in different universities and their relevant departments. We want to combine the data for each student in just a single cell and insert carriage return by applying formulas.

Case 2.1 – Applying the CHAR Function

Steps:

• Create a column and apply the following formula to the cell corresponding to the first student:

Here,

• B5= Name of the Student
• C5= Department
• D5= University

• Go to the Home tab and click Wrap Text.

• The cell will show new lines for each piece of information (i.e. Name, Department, University).

• Use the Fill Handle tool to Autofill the formula down to the next cells.

Case 2.2 – Using the CONCATENATE Function

Steps:

• Apply the following formula to the first result cell:

Here,

• B5= Name of the Student
• C5= Department
• D5= University

• Use the Wrap Text option.

• Drag the formula to the other cells to get the same result.

Read More: How to Find Carriage Return in Excel

Case 2.3 – Using the TEXTJOIN Function

Steps:

• Apply the following formula to the first result cell:

Here,

• B5= Name of the Student
• C5= Department
• D5= University

• Use Text Wrap and AutoFill to the other columns, similarly to the previous cases.

Read More: How to Replace Carriage Return with Comma in Excel 

Method 3 – With the Find and Replace Dialogue Box

We have the similar dataset as in Method 1. The values are separated by commas only.

Steps:

• Press Ctrl + H to open the Find and Replace dialogue box.
• In the Find what box, input a comma.
• Select the Replace with field and press Ctrl + J.
• Click Replace All.

• A carriage return will be inserted instead of a comma.

Things to Remember

• Carriage return creates new lines in a single cell.
• CHAR(10) is used to insert the carriage return character.

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Related Articles

• How to Remove Carriage Returns in Excel
• [Fixed!] Carriage Return Not Working in Excel

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