Tech Insights: Utilizing NHMA’s Wage Data Part 4

The information contained in this article is not intended as legal advice and may no longer be accurate due to changes in the law. Consult NHMA's legal services or your municipal attorney. 

In the last couple of issues, we have worked with NHMA’s wage data.  In this issue we will review various alignment options that can be applied to the wage data or any other data you may be working with.

We will start with positioning data, especially text within a cell.  On the Home tab in the Alignment box there are six boxes – three vertical and three horizontal alignment options.  The default position is the bottom left corner of a cell.  If you wish to change that position, simply click on any of these boxes and your text will shift.  This trick is especially useful if a cell is larger than normal.

In that same Alignment box, are two indent options.  The first, with an arrow pointing to the left, removes an indent while the second, with an arrow pointing to the right, adds an indent.  This remove and add works the same regardless of whether your text is right or left align.  This feature is great when wanting to shift text over, such as a totals line, to call it out.

Another useful alignment option in this same area is the ability to angle the text in certain cells.  If you have a series of data where the title is much larger than the data within the columns, try angling the titles which will allow you to reduce the column width. There are multiple options available with the drop-down arrow after the icon, including one which brings up the Format Cell box.

Merge & Centerallows users to combine multiple cells into one larger cell without having to adjust row heights or column widths.  Although this is a powerful tool, which I use regularly, please note there are some ramifications which may arise when using this feature.  Some of these ramifications may include issues with sorting and filtering, disrupted formulas that cover ranges, inserting columns or rows, using filters, and many others. 

Wrap text is a great feature which will automatically adjust the height of a cell to contain all the text you have added without changing the column width. Combining this option with the Merge & Center allows notes or larger titles to be placed in a spreadsheet without leaving awkward blank areas. 

As with many sections within a tab or ribbon in Excel, the icon found in the lower right corner opens a pop out window containing these and many other features.  One of the features found in this section may assist with your alignment formatting without needing to merge cells.  Before opening this pop out window, first type what you want centered in the first cell of the columns you want it centered across.  Then highlight all the cells where you want that text centered.  Open the pop out box and on the Alignment tab in the Text Alignment section, choose the dropdown arrow under the Horizontal option. One of the choices is Center Across Selection. Choose that option, press OK to close the pop out window and your text will be centered across those columns.  Edits to the text will be made in the original cell the text was put in, then will continue to be across the selected columns.