XL97: Indent Option on Alignment Tab Not Available with General Alignment (156889)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
This article was previously published under Q156889

SYMPTOMS

When you click the Alignment tab in the Format Cells dialog box, the Indent label under "Text alignment" appears dimmed.

CAUSE

Indent is available only when you click Left(Indent) in the Horizontal box in the Format Cells dialog box; however, the default setting for text alignment is General. Any other horizontal text alignment setting also causes the Indent label to appear unavailable or dimmed.

MORE INFORMATION

When you type a value in the Indent box, or click the arrows, the Indent label no longer appears dimmed, and the Horizontal box is automatically changed from General to Left(Indent).

NOTE: Clicking Increase Indent on the Formatting toolbar causes the same result as typing a value in the Indent box or clicking the arrows.

To indent text in a cell, use one of the following methods:

Method 1

Select the text and click Increase Indent on the Formatting toolbar.

Method 2

  1. Select the text.
  2. On the Format menu, click Cells.
  3. Click the Alignment tab.
  4. In the Horizontal list, click Left(Indent) and type the amount by which you want to indent the text, or click the arrows in the Indent box.
  5. Click OK.
NOTE: If you click Increase Indent several times and the cell to the right of the active cell is blank, the text you are aligning may be positioned over the blank cell, or over columns to the right of the active cell.

REFERENCES

For more information about the Indent feature, click the Index tab in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

indenting text

and then double-click the selected text to go to the "Horizontal alignment options" topic.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:10/21/2000
Keywords:KB156889
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.