Here is a fairly annoying problem.
Imagine a chart showing both sales & customer data. Sales numbers are large and customer numbers are small. So when you make a chart with both of these, it looks something like below.
Now, usually to select the smaller, unreachable series, the steps I follow are,
- Select the chart
- Go to Chart Format ribbon and select the series name (as shown below)
But this is a long process with significant click tax.
Here is a simpler alternative. Use arrow keys to select the series you want.
Here is how it works:
- Select one the taller, more prominent series
- Press either up or down arrow keys few times to select the smaller series
- Done!
A quick demo of this feature.
So go ahead and use ’em arrow keys to select & format any element in your chart.
Bonus tip: How to know which arrow key to press?
- After selecting the taller series, look at formula bar.
- It should read something like this:
=SERIES(Sheet1!$B$5,Sheet1!$A$6:$A$17,Sheet1!$B$6:$B$17,1) - Notice the last parameter.
- If it is 1, that means the other series is 2 (or 3 …). So you press UP arrow to increment.
- If it is 2 (or 3…), that means the other series is 1. So you press DOWN arrow to decrement.
Bonus Bonus Tip: How to select any individual data points in the series?
Use LEFT or RIGHT arrow keys to select individual data points in a series. This is an easy way to add data labels or change color of one particular data point.
How do you select unreachable chart elements?
I admit. I have been using the chart format ribbon to select unreachable items until today. But once I realized that we can use arrow keys, I feel empowered. While I am not a keyboard shortcut fanatic, I do believe that if there is a faster way to do something with keyboard alone, we should embrace it.
What about you? How do you select chart items? Please share your tips in the comment section.
More tips: on formatting charts, on keyboard shortcuts and quick Excel tips.
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 ""