Using Special Alignment Settings
We've already worked with the “typical” alignment commands available in Calc (briefly in this chapter and in detail in Chapter 3 in the section “Aligning Cell Entries”). Calc also provides you with some “special” alignment tools that give you the ability to indent text in a cell, wrap text in a cell (or merged cells), and rotate text and numbers in your cells. All the special alignment features are accessed via the Alignment tab of the Cell Attributes dialog box.
Select the cell or cells that will be affected by the special alignment settings that you will choose in the Cell Attributes dialog box. Then open the Cell Attributes dialog box and select the Alignment tab (see Figure 4.13).
Figure 4.13. The Alignment tab offers special alignment settings for your spreadsheet cells.
To Alter the Distance from Gridlines
You can indent data in a cell (or cells) from any of the cell gridlines. The Distance from gridlines box on the Alignment tab provides spin boxes for each gridline border (Left, Right, Top, Bottom).
Change the indent amount using the appropriate spin box. When you have completed setting the various indents, you can return to the spreadsheet by clicking OK.
To Alter the Wrapping of Text in a Cell
Another useful special alignment tool provides the ability to wrap text within a cell (or a range of merged cells). First, type the text that you wish to place in the cell. It will be displayed as a single horizontal line of text.
Open the Cell Attributes dialog box and select the Alignment tab. Click the Line break checkbox in the Text flow box of the Alignment tab. Then click OK to return to the spreadsheet. The text will be wrapped in the cell. You can change the width of the cell to change where the text lines actually break within the cell. Figure 4.14 shows text wrapped in a cell.
Figure 4.14. Text can be wrapped within a cell.
To Rotate Text and Numbers
You can rotate information in cells. This can be useful in a number of situations where you want to change the orientation of information in a cell. For example, to create a sheet where the row headings are rotated 90 degrees so that they read along the edge of the printed sheet, select the cells and then rotate the data in the cells using the Text direction tools on the Alignment tab.
1. |
Enter the data in the cells that you will rotate. |
2. |
Select the cell or cells containing the data that you will rotate. |
3. |
Right-click on the cell or cells and select Format Cells on the context menu. The Cell Attributes dialog box appears. Select the Alignment tab. |
4. |
To change the text orientation, click anywhere on the Orientation dial. The degrees of orientation change will appear on the Degrees spin box (you can also specify the number of degrees directly on the spin box). If you wish to orient the text straight up and down, select the square ABCD button to the right. |
5. |
To select the reference edge for the rotation, select one of the Reference Edge buttons. The button on the left sets the reference at the bottom; the button in the center sets the reference to the top; and the button on the right sets no reference (see Figure 4.15). Setting no reference means that any borders or background color set in the cell or cells will not be rotated with the text entry. Figure 4.15. Text can be rotated in a cell based on a particular reference point.
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6. |
Once you have selected the new orientation for the cell's contents, click OK. You will be returned to the sheet. |
When you rotate text, the text will run over into cells adjacent to the rotated range if the text requires more space. The downside of this is that it can over write data already in those cells. You may want to lay out and rotate your text entries before you place other information on a spreadsheet.
Note
When you are working with the various alignment feature, you can return to the previous settings on the Alignment tab by clicking the Reset button.