Forum Discussion
Inconsistent “Wrap Text” Behavior Between Excel Desktop and Excel Web
We’ve observed inconsistent behavior with the “Wrap Text” format across different Excel environments (Windows Desktop vs. Web).
Steps to Reproduce:
- Create or open an Excel file.
- Enter multi-line text in several cells and enable Wrap Text.
- Save the file locally.
- Upload it to OneDrive or open it in Excel for Web.
- Observe the displayed cell content without resizing the columns or reapplying formatting.
Observed Behavior:
- On Excel for Windows (Desktop) → Wrapped text displays correctly.
- On Excel for Mac (Desktop) → Wrapped text displays correctly.
- On Excel for Web → Text may not wrap properly by default, requiring manual reapplication of “Wrap Text.”
Expected Behavior:
Cell content formatted with Wrap Text should display consistently across all Excel platforms (Windows, Mac, and Web) without requiring manual adjustment or reapplication.
Excel Mac Desktop:
OneDrive:
3 Replies
Hi m_tarler, thanks for your reply. I tried adjusting the zoom level, but that only changes the overall page scale, the cell content style itself remains the same.
I then reapplied the Wrap Text property on the problematic web version, and it returned to normal.
So, I suspect this might be a cross-platform issue with the Wrap Text property.
The zoom effect is very minor so the particular text has to be really close to the wrap point and the zoom levels could be at lower levels (e.g. 70,80,90%) or could happen at high levels (e.g. 110%, 120%, etc..). If you play with the width of that column and look at different zoom levels you will find some combinations that will cause it. But the main point is that Excel is not a page layout application. For that point, even Word isn't perfect and I have numerous cases where we format just so but when someone else opens it the formatting is different.
Since I do a lot with printing excel sheets out with lots of text (test plans/scripts), I have found at least for my set up that zoom 140 or 160% gives me the most 'true' word wrap for when I print to pdf. But I suspect that may depend on font, font size, and maybe even the particular monitor resolution.
So going between excel versions, on different computers, etc... doesn't surprise me in the least that you may see wrap differences.
Excel is NOT a word processing program much a graphical layout program. You can find it will have different word wrap depending on the ZOOM level:
70%
80%
90%
