Question
I have an excel document that is being used for reports. For readability I currently have all the columns fairly narrow and am using cell overflow a lot visually. I want excel to recognize numbers and dates as such, I just want them to visually overflow like text does.
Key complications
-Non technical users will need to make versions off this document for their own reports
-this document will be passed around as a report in excel format
EDIT
I've added an image of the section that's a problem here to clarify the problem a little. You'll notice how H is shortening the date, it contains information almost identical to M. M will do so once I click out of the cell. I want it to display like J50 or H51, both of which are flowing out beautifully.
Best Answer
It's not clear why you need the extra columns (for example, I, K, and L), rather than just changing the column widths for what are now H and J. However, Excel will overflow a cell to display text if there is nothing in the next cell.
A simple way to accomplish what you want is to merge cells, for example H52:L52. This joins the cells to act like one big cell that uses what is in the left-most cell (or upper left cell if you are merging multiple rows). Highlight the cells you want to merge. Then click on the Merge & Center button. If you want the contents left-justified as it currently appears, use the left-align button.
You can also do this from the context menu. Select the cells to merge and right-click. Select Format Cells, then Alignment. Click the Merge Cells checkbox. The result will align the content within the merged cells according to how it is normally aligned (i.e., text is left-aligned, numbers are right-aligned, etc.). Change the alignment as you would in any cell if you want it different.