Results 1 to 10 of 16

Thread: Wrap Text On Spaces Up To A Maximum Number Of Characters Per Line

Threaded View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    Forum Guru Rick Rothstein's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    662
    Rep Power
    13

    Wrap Text On Spaces Up To A Maximum Number Of Characters Per Line

    NOTE: The code in this message assumes your text does not have any Line Feeds in it. If your code does have Line Feeds, then use the code in Message #16 instead.

    This question has come up several times in newsgroups and forums across the years, and it just did so again in another forum I visit, so I thought I would share the solution I posted in response here in this forum. To rephrase the question... you have a text string that you want to wrap into individual lines, with a prescribed maximum number of characters per line, but the line wrapping should only take place at a space between words. As an example, let's say the text string is this...

    Today is a fine day to go outside because the weather is so nice.

    and you want to line wrap it with no more than 25 characters on any single line. This is how the text should look (remember, we are wrapping text at a blank space only)...

    Today is a fine day to go
    outside because the
    weather is so nice.

    If, on the other hand, we were to allow a maximum of 35 characters per line, then the wrapped text would look like this instead...

    Today is a fine day to go outside
    because the weather is so nice.

    Okay, here is a UDF (user defined function) that will perform the appropriate line wrapping (the first argument is the text you want to wrap and the second argument is the maximum number of characters per line)...

    Code:
    '  Turn the Cell Format "Wrap text" setting
    '  on for the cell containing this UDF
    Function WrapText(CellWithText As String, MaxChars) As String
      Dim Space As Long, Text As String, TextMax As String
      Text = CellWithText
      Do While Len(Text) > MaxChars
        TextMax = Left(Text, MaxChars + 1)
        If Right(TextMax, 1) = " " Then
          WrapText = WrapText & RTrim(TextMax) & vbLf
          Text = Mid(Text, MaxChars + 2)
        Else
          Space = InStrRev(TextMax, " ")
          If Space = 0 Then
            WrapText = WrapText & Left(Text, MaxChars) & vbLf
            Text = Mid(Text, MaxChars + 1)
          Else
            WrapText = WrapText & Left(TextMax, Space - 1) & vbLf
            Text = Mid(Text, Space + 1)
          End If
        End If
      Loop
      WrapText = WrapText & Text
    End Function
    If you would rather do the line wrapping using a macro to process an entire column of text rather than using individual UDF formulas, then here is such a macro...

    Code:
    Sub WrapTextOnSpacesWithMaxCharactersPerLine()
      Dim Text As String, TextMax As String, SplitText As String
      Dim Space As Long, MaxChars As Long
      Dim Source As Range, CellWithText As Range
      
      ' With offset as 1, split data will be adjacent to original data
      ' With offset = 0, split data will replace original data
      Const DestinationOffset As Long = 1
    
      MaxChars = Application.InputBox("Maximum number of characters per line?", Type:=1)
      If MaxChars <= 0 Then Exit Sub
      On Error GoTo NoCellsSelected
      Set Source = Application.InputBox("Select cells to process:", Type:=8)
      On Error GoTo 0
      For Each CellWithText In Source
        Text = CellWithText.Value
        SplitText = ""
        Do While Len(Text) > MaxChars
          TextMax = Left(Text, MaxChars + 1)
          If Right(TextMax, 1) = " " Then
            SplitText = SplitText & RTrim(TextMax) & vbLf
            Text = Mid(Text, MaxChars + 2)
          Else
            Space = InStrRev(TextMax, " ")
            If Space = 0 Then
              SplitText = SplitText & Left(Text, MaxChars) & vbLf
              Text = Mid(Text, MaxChars + 1)
            Else
              SplitText = SplitText & Left(TextMax, Space - 1) & vbLf
              Text = Mid(Text, Space + 1)
            End If
          End If
        Loop
        CellWithText.Offset(, DestinationOffset).Value = SplitText & Text
      Next
      Exit Sub
    NoCellsSelected:
    End Sub
    Note the comment above the line of code where the DestinationOffset constant is set (the Const statement).


    HOW TO INSTALL UDFs
    ------------------------------------
    If you are new to UDFs, they are easy to install and use. To install it, simply press ALT+F11 to go into the VB editor and, once there, click Insert/Module on its menu bar, then copy/paste the above code into the code window that just opened up. That's it.... you are done. You can now use WrapText just like it was a built-in Excel function. For example (assuming 35 characters per line),

    =WrapText(A1,35)


    HOW TO INSTALL MACROs
    ------------------------------------
    If you are new to macros, they are easy to install and use. To install it, simply press ALT+F11 to go into the VB editor and, once there, click Insert/Module on its menu bar, then copy/paste the above code into the code window that just opened up. That's it.... you are done. To use the macro, go back to the worksheet with your data on it and press ALT+F8, select the macro name (WrapTextOnSpacesWithMaxCharactersPerLine) from the list that appears and click the Run button. The macro will execute and perform the action(s) you asked for. If you are using XL2007 or above, make sure you save your file as an "Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook (*.xlsm).
    Last edited by Rick Rothstein; 12-24-2016 at 03:45 PM.

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 6
    Last Post: 06-01-2013, 03:24 PM
  2. Remove Special Characters From Text Or Remove Numbers From Text
    By Excel Fox in forum Excel and VBA Tips and Tricks
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 05-31-2013, 04:43 PM
  3. Extract Certain Characters From A Text String
    By bobkap in forum Excel Help
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 05-24-2013, 06:25 AM
  4. Replies: 10
    Last Post: 12-10-2012, 11:28 PM
  5. Replies: 6
    Last Post: 09-26-2011, 07:39 AM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •