Show full content of a cell when selected [Calc]

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#1

I have a cell with a large amount of text in it.
I don't want to Wrap text automatically because that will expand the cell.
Instead I'd like to keep the cell small, and only expand when it is clicked
on, or manoeuvred onto via keyboard. Do you know what I mean? :slight_smile:
Is that possible in Libreoffice Calc?

#2

I don't know of a way to do that. However, if you desire to read the full
content of the cell, note that when the cell is selected the content is
displayed in the input line.

If the input line isn't long enough, and text is cut off, the input line
can be widened vertically so it will display more text. The shortcoming of
this method is the input line height is not preserved when saving the
spreadsheet. Each spreadsheet in which the wider input line is needed
requires expanding the input line whenever the spreadsheet is opened. It
isn't a solution that is activated "as needed" or remembered as a property
of the spreadsheet.

Sorry, don't know any other options.

#3

I have a cell with a large amount of text in it. I don't want to Wrap text automatically because that will expand the cell.

Surely you *do* want to do that? A spreadsheet is designed for display in the editing screen or on a printed page. In either case it is difficult to imagine that you don't want to see what is in cells as you navigate around or read the spreadsheet.

Instead I'd like to keep the cell small, and only expand when it is clicked on, or manoeuvred onto via keyboard.

I don't see any way to do that.

I can imagine that you might perhaps have a single cell which has much more text than other cells in the same row and column, so that expanding either would be wasteful of display space. One way around this would be to put the text for that cell somewhere else - either out of the way on the same sheet or even on another sheet. You could then create a hyperlink to the actual text in the relevant (small) cell. This simplest way to do that is probably to give the target cell containing the actual text a name (Insert | Names > | Define...). In the original cell, go to Insert | Hyperlink, select Document, click the Target in Document button, expand "Range names", select the name, and then click Apply, Close, Apply, and Close. If you now double-click the original cell, the oversize text will be displayed.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker