×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

(OP)
Greetings,
I know that there is a limit on the characters that can successfully be wrapped in EXCEL, to some degree.  I still can't figure out how to resolve my problem.  The only way presently to fix the probelm is to auto-size the cell.  For example, I have the following in a cell:


Measure the OIP3 (dBm) for the RMC FRU, and calculate the IIP3 using the formula, OIP3=IIP3+Gain. Or, measure the IIP3 and calculate the OIP3.  

This test is the standard two-tone test.  There are three sources of error that should be considered when making distortion measurements on devices with low intermodulation products.  These three are:
1) Interaction between the test equipment
Ensure that there is adequate isolation between the two signal generators.  Use Isolators, LPFs, attenuators and amplifiers if available to increase the isolation.  If resistive power combiners aren't available, use Mini Circuits family of 2-way, 0 degree power splitters, such as ZFSC-2-5.  Tie spectrum analyzer and two generators together via 10 MHz reference.

2) Dynamic range of the spectrum analyzer
The usual quick check to determine if the analyzer in generating internal distortion due to input signals that are too high, is to increase the analyzer's input RF attenuator by 10 dB and verify that there is no change in the signal level of the IM products. If the IM product levels do change when the input attenuator is switched, the analyzer is generating internal distortion products and the input signal level is too high to make a valid measurement.

3) Quality of equipment
Use the 8644A or equivalent low-noise generators for greater sensitivity.  

Choose a spectrum analyzer with adequate dynamic range, such as a Agilent E4440 or equivalent

Some of the cell wraps, but some doesn't wrap.  There are already "ALT-Enter" commands in the cell, but yet there still is a problem.  What must I do to see and print all that actually is within a cell?  Thanks for your consideration.

John

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

For that much text, it might be best to use a text box (on Drawing toolbar) instead of trying to put everything in one cell.  Alternatively, use several cells and use Edit|Fill|Justify to wrap into the cells desired.

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

(OP)
Well, there are many cells like this, and there are more columns as well.  Picture a 6 cell wide by 50 cell long document that fits on 17 pages.  Another program exports the data to EXCEL, and then I format the report to look nice, and then print it out.  Using text boxes is not realistic in this case.

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Why on earth are you using Excel? Surely Word would work better?

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

(OP)
Like I said, the database program (DOORS) generates the reports in EXCEL, and the report works just fine in EXCEL, but there is one formatting issue.  PLease just tell me if you know how to resolve my problem, and not comments on how you would do it.  I am stuck with the tools that we are forced to use.  Thanks

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Is it possible to use the cells for the headline comments and use the "INSERT/Comment" menu to add the rest of the description in the comment box?
ANy one who wants to then clicks on the red triangle to see the comment which woul be the bulk of your text.

e.g. in the cell put:
"Measure the OIP3 (dBm) for the RMC FRU, and calculate the IIP3 using the formula, OIP3=IIP3+Gain. Or, measure the IIP3 and calculate the OIP3."  
and put the rest in the comment  "This test is the standard two-tone test.  There are three sources ....." etc.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

(OP)
This will ultimately be printed out, so that idea, though having merit, will not work.

Thanks.

John

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Why can't it be taken from excel into word?

I2I

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Which report in DOORS are you referring to?  

Why can't you directly export to Word?

TTFN



RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

(OP)
I suppose that it can be taken from EXCEL into WORD.  I hadn't thought of it.  DUH!  I will try it and see how it looks.  Thanks.  Our version of Doors creates requirements docs in WORD, but test plans in EXCEL.  Go figure!

John

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

It may be of interest to note that this particular piece of text actually exceeds the stated limit of Excel to display in a cell.  This passage is 1207 characters long (1448 including spaces).  According to Excel 2003 help for Excel Specifications and Limits:

Quote (Excel 2003 Help):


Length of cell contents (text):
32,767 characters. Only 1,024 display in a cell; all 32,767 display in the formula bar

I guess this limit is either outdated or (as I suspect) it is the supported limit, and anything you get above that is a bonus but unpredictable.  

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

(OP)
HOw does save an EXCEL file as a WORD file, or are you thinking to copy and paste the entire file, which looks hairy.

John

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

If you select a bunch of cells in Excel and paste them into Word they will come in (at least on my machine) as a Word table that you can easily adjust size, formatting, wrapping, whatever you want.

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Or....you can insert an excel object into word.

I2I

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Yes, but the problem in the OP was that Excel is not designed or intended for large blocks of text in a single cell, and it is therefore difficult to control formatting, wrapping, etc.  Inserting an Excel object into Word would do nothing for that issue.  Pasting, however, creates a Word table that is designed to be able to hold, format, wrap, etc. large amounts of text in a single cell.

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

If you save the Excel file as a text file, you can open it in Word and the individual cells will come in with quotation marks around each cell entry.

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

I just tried it in OpenOffice and it seemed to take it OK.  Download from OpenOffice.org - a replacement for Microsoft Office Suite.

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Although a large number of characters can be placed in a single cell only about 256 can be displayed at one time.  By default the first 256 are displayed.  If you want to display more than 256 you must reference the cell containing the text with a mid function.  Suppose a1 holds the text then
=mid(a1,1,256) will show the first 256
=mid(a1,257,256) will show the next 256
and so on
You can facilitate display by letting another cell hold the starting point for viewing, say a2

=mid(a1,a2,256) will show the first 256 if a2=1

if you want you can add a spin button with the linkcell set to a2 so you can change the starting point by clicking the spin button.  By setting teh large change property to 256 you could flip through 256 charactor chuncks of your report
for each click of th espin button.

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

256 is the column limit - the number of characters in a single line that can be displayed in a cell.  None of the lines in the OP come near 256 characters in length.  

Paste the text from the OP into a single cell (you have to paste it to the formula bar) and you can see the entire text displayed in the cell.  As stated before, this is outside Excel's stated limits, but it works.  However, formatting is squirrely, hence the OP.

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Handleman,
I just tried that in Excel 2002 and it didn't work, after the first few wraps, it gives up and the only way to see the sentences is to drag the column width out.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

Try this:  Paste the OP’s sample text into a Word document and turn on the format display (and turn off auto numbering.)  At the end of each line hit the enter key so that you have a ¶ character at the end of each line.  Now copy the modified text and paste it into the formula bar in Excel. You should get cell text that looks just like your Word text.

If you’re typing directly into an Excel cell, use the enter key as the carriage return on a mechanical typewriter.

RE: Wrapping in EXCEL 2003

You can use the following code to convert the data in the active cell into a number of cells to the right of the active cell. If you want, you can implement it as a function, taking as arguments a text string and a destination range, for example. Feel free to modify.

CODE

Sub WrapIt()
Dim txt As String, NewTxt As String, c As String
Dim i As Long, n As Long, LastSpace As Long

    NewTxt = ""
    txt = ActiveCell.Value
    n = 0
    For i = 1 To Len(txt)
        c = Mid(txt, i, 1)
        If c = " " Then LastSpace = Len(NewTxt)
        If (c = Chr(10)) Then
            ActiveCell.Offset(n, 1).Value = NewTxt
            NewTxt = ""
            n = n + 1
        ElseIf Len(NewTxt) = 255 Then
            i = i + LastSpace - Len(NewTxt)
            ActiveCell.Offset(n, 1).Value = Left(NewTxt, LastSpace)
            NewTxt = ""
            n = n + 1
        Else
            NewTxt = NewTxt & c
        End If
    Next i
End Sub

Cheers,
Joerd

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources