How to Wrap Text in Google Sheets

Learn how to wrap text in a single cell, a full row, or a whole column

A printed spreadsheet with a pencil laying on top of it.

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by Scott Orgera
Scott Orgera has been a tech journalist since 2007. He has 25+ years' experience as a programmer and QA leader and several Microsoft certifications.
Updated March 21, 2019

When entering a significant amount of text in a Google Sheets cell, it may overlap other cells and columns if it cannot fit within the current cell's dimensions. Depending on your settings, the text might not overlap adjacent cells but instead be truncated, making the entirety of it virtually invisible until you click within the cell itself.

Either of these behaviors can prove problematic, causing your spreadsheets to appear sloppy and also making them difficult to read or navigate. Wrapping text allows you to maintain some semblance of order in your document, ensuring that all of the text is displayed across multiple lines within its respective cell. 

Wrap Text in Google Sheets

  1. Select one or more cells containing the text that you wish to wrap. You can also choose entire columns or rows if you wish.

    text overflowing into adjacent cells in Google Sheets

    To apply text wrapping to an entire spreadsheet, first click on the empty box located at the intersection of the Column A and Row 1 headers. All cells within the active sheet should now be highlighted, at which point you should continue with the steps below.

  2. Click on the Format menu, located towards the top of the Google Sheets browser tab.

  3. When the drop-down menu appears, hover your mouse cursor over the Text wrapping option.

    Google Sheets Format menu

  4. A sub-menu will now be displayed, containing the following three options: Overflow, Wrap and Clip. Select Wrap.

    wrapped text in a Google Sheets cell

  5. All text within the selected cells should now be wrapped accordingly. You can revert these settings at any time by repeating the previous steps and choosing either Overflow or Clip.