It is the customer on the phone again, she wants to know what products we have.
How cool would it be if we can send her a spreadsheet with all the products neatly listed in a table and she can use filters to find what she likes. Alas, we end up sending a biggish PDF brochure that is both difficult to make and maintain.
Well, not any more.
Today we will learn a very useful and fun trick in Excel. We will create a product catalog using Excel that you can send to your clients or boss (and impress them).
We will create something like this:
Step one: Set up the product catalog in Excel Spreadsheet
This is a simple step. Define a table structure for your product catalog. For our example – Supurr Market, I have chosen only one column, with the images of various Cats the shop sells. But you can add more columns like size, age, price, features etc.
- Now, adjust row heights / column widths in such a way that you can fit in the images in cells.
- And align images of your products neatly in the cells.
- Also, just type the product name in the cells where you have kept the images.
Step two: Adjust image properties so that they can be filtered
We will finish this step before you can snap your fingers. Just select all the images, right click and select Format picture (in Excel 2007, you need to select ‘size & properties’) and go to “properties” tab. Here change the option to “Move and size with cells” from whatever it is earlier.
Step three: Apply data filters so that your product catalog can be filtered
Do that.
Step four: Time to impress your clients
Send the lean and sleek product catalog to your clients. Tell your story elegantly and get some orders.
Download the product catalog template workbook
Click here to download the excel product catalog workbook. Use it to learn and make your own product catalogs using MS excel.
Do you run a small business? Tell me how you use excel.
I think Excel has great potential to manage 90% of small business IT operations. It is simple to learn and easy to maintain. I want to know how you use excel to manage your small business. Share your experiences and ideas using comments.
Learn how you can do the same for charts: Dynamic Charts in Excel
PS: Special thanks to Gerald Higgins for telling me about the image properties tip.
11 Responses to “Use Alt+Enter to get multiple lines in a cell [spreadcheats]”
@Chandoo:
One more useful trick.......
In a column you have no. of data in rows and need to copy in the next row from the previous row, no need to go for the previous rows but entering Alt + down arrow, you will get the list of data, (in asending order), entered in the previous rows...
This is another great tip. I use this all the time to make sense of some *very* long formulas. As soon as the formula is debugged I remove the break.
Great tip Chandoo!
I use this feature often and it has even gotten the, "how did you do that" response.
Thanks!
@Ketan: Alt+down arrow is an awesome tip. I never knew it and now I am using it everyday.
@Jorge, Tony: Agree... 🙂
[...] Day 1: Insert Line Breaks in a Cell [...]
how can we merge a two sheet.
excellent idea. Chandoo you are genious
Hi chandoo,
I have used ctrl+enter to break the cell. But I did not get the result.
Please tell me how can i break the cell in multiple lines.
Hi, Ranveer,
Its not Ctrl+enter to break the cell, use Alt+Enter to make it happen.
hi Chandoo....
how we can use Alt+Enter in multiple rows at the same time please reply hurry i have lot of work and have no time and i m stuck in this. 🙁
Alt+J worked once 🙁
So I found another more reliable way:
=SUBSTITUTE(A2,CHAR(13),"")
Where A2 is the cell that contains the line breaks which the code for it is CHAR(13). It will replace it with whatever inside the ""