Getting Oriented in Excel 2010 part 4

Here’s another instance of a justified cell (Figure 4–53):

And here’s the same test subject to the Distributed option (Figure 4–54):

Note how the word “happen” is centered here. It’s the closest Distribute could come to spanning the entire column width with  that one word. Try typing the above phrase, applying the Justify and Distribute effects, and widening the column.

Center Across Selection centers a cell entry across a range of cells. That is, if I type this:

This is how to center data across a selection in cell E28, and then select this range (Figure 4–55):

The effect is clear. Excel treats the selected range as a single space—in essence as one big cell, even though each cell retains its own identity— and centers the data accordingly. You may want to contrast this with the Merge & Center command coming up soon.

Of the five Vertical Alignment drop-down options in our dialog box (Figure 4–57),

the first three—Top, Bottom and Center—are clones of the Vertical Alignment buttons we’ve already seen in the Alignment  Group. The other two—Justify and Distributed—attempt to realize the same effects as their similarly-named Horizontal  options, but to appreciate how they work you need to tinker with column widths and text length. Here are two examples  (Figures 4–58 and 4–59):

The three Text control options in the Alignment dialog box are variations on themes we’ve previously sounded. As with  Justify and Distribute, Wrap text regards a cell’s current width as a margin, and wraps cell text accordingly.