formula overflowing cell

[chuckj]

When I type a formula in a cell that is larger than the cell itself, the formula moves into the cell to the left, and then to the next cell to the left, etc. It also displays in the formula bar, which is fine. Example: say I am typing in a formula in cell H5. It starts in H5. But as it gets too long to fit in H5, it moves to fill in G5 & H5. As the formula gets longer it moves to fill F5, G5 & H5. This becomes a problem if I need to reference G5 in the formula itself, because it is covered by the formula. Is there a setting to make the formula display in column H only? Meaning as it gets longer it will display in H5, H6, H7, etc. I want the formula to move down a cell as it gets longer, not to the left.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi @chuckj

Is the cell you're typing into fomatted as Right aligned? that tends to force the formula to expand to the left. Try formatting the cell as left aligned or going to format cell - Alignment Horizontal - General.

If you do want the formula to spill down you could format the cell with Wrap text and then turn this off after editing the formula.

Another way to avoid the issue is to edit the formula using the formula bar

[#3]

Thanks Wyn! You solved it. It wasn't actually set to Right Align. It was actually set to Center. I didn't notice that it was overflowing to the right also because I didn't need to reference anything to the right. I turned off Center from the Home tab and it works fine now.