XL98: CONTROL+OPTION+TAB Does Not Insert Tab into Active Cell (185041)

SYMPTOMS

When you press CONTROL+OPTION+TAB, Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition fails to insert a tab character in the active cell.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because Microsoft Excel 98 no longer uses this keystroke to position cell text; instead, Microsoft Excel uses text alignment features.

NOTE: In earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, you use the key combination CONTROL+OPTION+TAB, to indent text in a cell. This keystroke inserts eight spaces in the active cell rather than a tab character.

RESOLUTION

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

Select the cell that contains the text you want to indent.
On the Format menu, click Cells.
Click the Alignment tab.
In the Horizontal list, click Left(Indent) and type the amount by which you want to indent the text. Or, click the Indent arrows.
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 indenting text, click Contents And Index on the Help menu (or on the Balloon Help menu if you are using a version of the Macintosh operating system earlier than 8.0), click the Index button in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

indenting data

and then click Show Topics. Select the "Center, align, indent, or rotate data in a cell" topic, and click Go To. If you are unable to find the information you need, ask the Office Assistant.