Excel 2010 Just the Steps For Dummies
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In Excel 2010, use the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons in the Alignment group on the Home tab to change the indentation of cell contents. This feature is commonly used to enhance the appearance of table data by indenting subordinate text.

Indenting cell data

Follow these steps to indent data in cells:

  1. Select the cells containing text you want to indent.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Alignment group, click the Increase Indent button.

    Each time you click the Increase Indent button, Excel adds a small amount of space between the cell border and the data itself.

    Indenting data helps to set it apart from other cells (see column A).
    Indenting data helps to set it apart from other cells (see column A).

How Excel indents depends on how you format the cell:

  • If the data is left-aligned, Excel indents from the left.

  • If the data is right-aligned, Excel indents from the right.

  • If the data is centered, with the first click, Excel indents from the right; but subsequent clicks cause Excel to move the data from the left to the right.

Removing cell indentation

If you want to remove the indentation applied to cell data, follow these steps:

  1. Select the cells containing the indented text.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Alignment group, click the Decrease Indent button.

    Each time you click the Decrease Indent button, Excel removes a small amount of space between the cell border and the data itself.

About This Article

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About the book author:

Diane Koers owns and operates All Business Service, a software training and consulting business formed in 1988, that services the central Indiana area. Her area of expertise has long been in the word-processing, spreadsheet, and graphics areas of computing. She also provides training and support for Peachtree Accounting Software. Diane's authoring experience includes over 40 books on topics, such as PC security, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Works, WordPerfect, Paint Shop Pro, Lotus SmartSuite, Quicken, Microsoft Money, and Peachtree Accounting. Many of these titles have been translated into other languages, such as French, Dutch, Bulgarian, Spanish, and Greek. She has also developed and written numerous training manuals for her clients.
Diane and her husband enjoy spending their free time fishing, traveling, and playing with their four grandsons and their Yorkshire Terrier.

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