In a spreadsheet, I have a CELL (not the formula bar) that is displaying over
1550 characters, how is this possible?. Other cells limit character count
per the 1024 limit. If I copy the contents of this errant sell to another
part of the spreadsheet, the contents get spread over a number of rows (in
the same column).
As part of the puzzle, I can't see how to verify how many characters are in
a cell whilst performing free-form text entry into a cell (other than to use
the 'Mid' function and test when it hits a pre-defined limit), not do I see
how this errant cell came to be created. There is a word count function but
no character count function that I can find.
There are other cells in the same column that exhibit this anomaly, others
that don't. I have tried merging cells to get the effect but did not manage
to replicate it. The errant cells have a single identity e.g. D3, they are
not a range of cells, nor is the content of the cell the result of a
concatenation of data elsewhere on the spreadsheet (CONCATENATE or use of '&'
to 'glue' text together).

LEN will count the number of characters in a cell. I believe you can
overcome the character limit by inserting "alt+enter" at various points in
the cell.

"Braders999" wrote:

In a spreadsheet, I have a CELL (not the formula bar) that is displaying over
1550 characters, how is this possible?. Other cells limit character count
per the 1024 limit. If I copy the contents of this errant sell to another
part of the spreadsheet, the contents get spread over a number of rows (in
the same column).
As part of the puzzle, I can't see how to verify how many characters are in
a cell whilst performing free-form text entry into a cell (other than to use
the 'Mid' function and test when it hits a pre-defined limit), not do I see
how this errant cell came to be created. There is a word count function but
no character count function that I can find.
There are other cells in the same column that exhibit this anomaly, others
that don't. I have tried merging cells to get the effect but did not manage
to replicate it. The errant cells have a single identity e.g. D3, they are
not a range of cells, nor is the content of the cell the result of a
concatenation of data elsewhere on the spreadsheet (CONCATENATE or use of '&'
to 'glue' text together).

If you go to FormatCellsAlignment and disable "wrap text" do you see any
little square boxes in the cell's content?

If so, this would indicate soemone has used ALT + ENTER to expand the character
limit.

=LEN(D3) would give you a count of characters in the cell.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP
On Fri, 7 Jul 2006 13:49:02 -0700, Braders999
wrote:

In a spreadsheet, I have a CELL (not the formula bar) that is displaying over
1550 characters, how is this possible?. Other cells limit character count
per the 1024 limit. If I copy the contents of this errant sell to another
part of the spreadsheet, the contents get spread over a number of rows (in
the same column).
As part of the puzzle, I can't see how to verify how many characters are in
a cell whilst performing free-form text entry into a cell (other than to use
the 'Mid' function and test when it hits a pre-defined limit), not do I see
how this errant cell came to be created. There is a word count function but
no character count function that I can find.
There are other cells in the same column that exhibit this anomaly, others
that don't. I have tried merging cells to get the effect but did not manage
to replicate it. The errant cells have a single identity e.g. D3, they are
not a range of cells, nor is the content of the cell the result of a
concatenation of data elsewhere on the spreadsheet (CONCATENATE or use of '&'
to 'glue' text together).

I have been helpfully advised about the effects of Alt /Enter on text length
entry into a cell, and the use of the LEN fuction to character count (thank
you), but I still don't understand why, when I copy a text filled cell (with
more than 1024 characters) that it gets split across several cells
(vertically).... sometimes!!!. I created a test cases with single Alt/Enter
entry, double Alt/Enter codes and combinations with space characters to see
if I could force the splitting to occur, but have not been successful in
replicating the effect. I am concerned because I am only intending to move a
single cells content, if I was to paste a single, or maybe even sort
including this cell (something I haven't tried yet) and have that cell split
itself, I would have (possibly) created multiple additional cells
unintentionally and/or worse, unknowingly.

"Braders999" wrote:

In a spreadsheet, I have a CELL (not the formula bar) that is displaying over
1550 characters, how is this possible?. Other cells limit character count
per the 1024 limit. If I copy the contents of this errant sell to another
part of the spreadsheet, the contents get spread over a number of rows (in
the same column).
As part of the puzzle, I can't see how to verify how many characters are in
a cell whilst performing free-form text entry into a cell (other than to use
the 'Mid' function and test when it hits a pre-defined limit), not do I see
how this errant cell came to be created. There is a word count function but
no character count function that I can find.
There are other cells in the same column that exhibit this anomaly, others
that don't. I have tried merging cells to get the effect but did not manage
to replicate it. The errant cells have a single identity e.g. D3, they are
not a range of cells, nor is the content of the cell the result of a
concatenation of data elsewhere on the spreadsheet (CONCATENATE or use of '&'
to 'glue' text together).