In case anyone else had as much trouble figuring this out as I did… if you want to break up a cell in the Mac edition of Microsoft Excel into multiple lines, you need to hold down the Option and Command keys while pressing Return. This is a little different than the Windows edition of Excel, where you hold down Alt while pressing Return. Anyway, it seems to work well, and now I can get nicely-formatted text into my Excel documents!
Thank you so much for this post. I couldn’t find this particular information in Excel help and I was going crazy!
Thank youuuuuu. The only thing more infuriating than Office is Office Help. It seems every answer I get is from somewhere outside the Office support “universe”.
Thanks a billion !!
Soo helpful. I was unable to find the answer in the Mac Excel help. This is great, Bless You.
it works nicely….BIG thanks….
You are my best friend in the whole world, this has been driving me insane.
OMG Thank you so much…. I have wasted a week of my life and half the hair on my head trying to work this out….
Thanks!!! This is so helpful.
I echo the above! I was going crazy. You da Man!!!!
Quite a HELPFULL hint in a very important issue, thanks a lot, from Mexico City !!
THANKS YOU DUDE!! life saver
Worked like a charm. Thanks for taking the time to post – it saved me plenty.
+1,000,000
Thanks very useful!
Thank you so much. I will postpone running amok in Redmond with an ax.
THANKS SO MUCH for this answer!!
I was going crazy over this – thanks so much for posting – much appreciated!!!
thanks so much. i got stuck with this for many days.
It’s really useful.
Thanks ever so much. I’ve been trying to puzzle out the analogous keyboard commands for Mac for way too long (seriously, it’s somewhat embarrassing)!
Thank you for not only figuring this out but also sharing it with the rest of us!
Thank you so much! It works..
Ah, thank you SO MUCH.. 🙂
very much appreciated, thank you
Thanks a bunch, small tip but makes life a lot easier..
Cheers man,
You’ve just saved me hours of trying key combinations!
Big help! Many thanks from Cochin, India
Thanks a ton !!! cheerz 🙂
Perfect! Just the information I needed right when I needed it – thanks for posting!
Cheers
Paul
Thank you very much for taking your time posting this. It really worked well, I could;t figure it out by myself
Thank you so much for this, I was driving myself crazy trying to figure it out, I searched youtube for 20 minutes but still could not find anything. Thank you so much for making my life easier!
Thanks, this saved me a lot of time!
Nice one!
thank you
it’s now 2012 and this post is still very helpful! thank you so much for this post. been trying to figure out how to do it on Excel for Mac.
cheers!
Like many other posts… I am so thankful for your post. I spent a lot of time unsuccessfully searching for how to enter multiple lines on one cell in Excel on Mac. I finally did a Google search and your post came up. Great help! Big Thanks!
Another thank you from me.
Why do Macs always need to Think DIfferent?
A life saver!
Thanks!
thaaaaaank you!! I am a recent convert to the mac. This is so helpful!
Thank you so much this was extremely helpful!
Adding to the years of thanks. Definitely a helpful hint. Congrats on being the top Google response on variations of the seach ‘ newline in cell excel mac ‘
Hi Todd.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Honestly.
I found your post on April 15, 2012. Imagine that your post is still helping people 2 years, 2 months ad 10 days after you posted it!
Kudos, Mr K. You single-handedly provided better support for Excel:Mac product than Microsoft. To their shame.
I owe you one; if I can return the favor, drop me a note.
Scott
You are a star I echo all the comments that went before you have just saved me from hours of frustrated Microsoft bewilderment 🙂
Thank you VERY much, Todd ! This tip saved me a lot of time. Like the other commenters, I found the Mac Excel Help not that helpful.
Thanks for the tip. This has been frustrating me for so long, and like a miracale you have provided the help.
A very simple but heartfelt “me too!” to all the above posts of thanks. I thought I’d tried every key combination possible – clearly not!
Thank you VERY much! I think as more people move to a MAC, this tip will continue to help others. Like others mentioned above, a profound thanks!
Hello,
For some reason this isn’t working for me. option+command+enter is bringing up a quick play window for iTunes. Anyone know how to disable that so I can use that keystroke for excel?
Thanks,
John
i am getting the same thing… i tried opt + cmmd + return and it only worked once, then i tried it in another cell and some windows program pops up – very frustrating. now it won’t work at all.
i finally found the solution: try opt + return. it works – yah!
Thankyou! Nice, short clear advice that worked first time!
Excellent. Thank You!
this is super helpful. thank you!
superb! works like super 😀
Google leads me to your site … searched with “mac excel line feed in zelle” and Bingo! you had the right advice. Thanks from Germany, Erich
This is helpful for me, Thank you so much.
great … thanks very much
I must have a try,thank you
It has worked,thank you
Thanks!
Thank you thank you. I’m still having trouble making the jump from PC Word to Mac Word and this really helped. Look at all the comments over 2 years! See, we all achieve immortality in different ways through little acts of guidance and assistance.
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, This tip will save this teacher tons of “spacebar” time when typing weekly lesson plans!!!! Like most I found the answer NOWHERE in Help.
Thx took me a while to figure it out
Fantastic. Its amazing how many people were looking for this. THANK YOU!!
thanks for taking the time to post – your reply has withstood the test of time!
thanks!! I was struggling with this myself!
Dude! Thanks for this tip!
Thank you so much! I hope you feel good about all the people you’ve helped.
Thanks a ton. have been struggling with this for a while . Standard short cut keys ( ALT + Enter) does not work in Excel for Mac
Thanks a million – this makes my day!
Thanks Todd, if you ever have a question about Web Analytics let me know, IOU!
Thank you! I too am very grateful for your post!
Thank u for the tip!!! finally figured it out
You are a god. I’ve wanted to know this for several years.
Finally! THANK YOU!
Thanks a lot. It was really helpful.
Thank you!!!!
Thank you so much for making this so easy to find and straight to the point! 🙂
Thank you so much this was really useful in times of frustration! 🙂
thanks, was driving me nuts
Thank you very much…
You can see by the steady stream of “thank you” replies (more than 18 months now) that this is much needed and hard-to-find tip.
Just for a moment, consider how much time it took to offer this advice and then the resultant positive impact on so many people (imagine the countless many that have benefited but did not write their thanks). This might seem to overstate this.. but how many individuals were out there tearing their hair out as a deadline was bearing down on them only to have this stupid little frustration get in their way.
Well done, and again, thank you.
It is such a pain that Excel in Mac is so different from Windows. I find the Mac version very awkward.
Ditto what everyone above has said!!
Excellent info.. You sir are awesome.
thank you thank you thank you thank you!
Thank you, works wonders : )
Thank you
This has been doing my head in for ages … thank you!
Thanks for posting your answer.
Really helpful. Thanks a lot!
Thank you so much!!!!
This article saved me throwing my Mac at the wall. Thanks !
Thank you too.
Thank you.. this really helped !!
LIFESAVER!!!! UGH!
That was frustrating… thank you 🙂
This was deeply frustrating. Thank you so much!
fantastic , so easy once you know it 😉 .THANK YOU !
Thanks! I tried all the usual suspects, but not the pair of them 😉
Thanks Heaps – like everyone else I was pulling my hair out.
LOVE YOU
Very Useful!!! Thanks 🙂
THANK YOU!! Very helpful!
Saved the day! Brilliant! Thank you.
You are a saint! Thank you!!
Very nice, something so simple, but very necessary. Thank you.
Thank you so much!
Brilliant – I was being driven mad by this. Thanks so much for putting this here. You have saved thousands of people a lot of frustration. Cheers.
Thanks man!
Thanks a lot! This was so helpful!
Thank you so much.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!! I’m a new Mac user and a die hard Excel user. I’m loving the MAC and slowly but surely adapting to the new Excel key strokes and shortcuts. Really love being able to google a question and find a site where someone was considerate enough to post the solution. THANKS!
Thanks!
Pingback: Adding New Lines to Cells in Excel for the Mac | /home/todd | Get Things to Work
THANK YOU!!!!!!!
Thanks dude!
Thank you soooo much ! This has been driving me crazy 🙂
Adding my thanks!
Thank you sooo much! simple and easy =)
I was looking for this tip – thanks for your help…!
Love seeing how many people this has helped, even years after you initially posted. Thanks Todd!
Life saver – I just pushed every button possible and still got nothing. Your site helped heaps. Thanks
Small step for a man’s finger, great leap for Mackind
This is how altruism looks like!
Wow, so simple. I would’ve never figured this out… thank you!
It works
thanks
Great, had us baffled!
The firmware will include the option to unlock 30 exclusive levels of the Angry
Birds Space game if the game is unlocked in the first three months after
the update is released. and this is something that Imation claims sets Iron Key apart from other bootable USB flash drives.
Another advantage that the Mac has is that you can increase your productivity when working on multiple programs because it is a lot faster and easier.
Thank you! Mac “Help” is so, well, unhelpful 🙁
Thank You™!!! how do I +1 this on google+ or like it on Fbook/?
Thank you….soooooo much! Would have taken me hours to work that out as excel help is useless!!
thank you so much for this!!!
Thanks! It’s amazing the little things you seem to loose when converting to a Mac
super duper THANK YOU!
The perfect solution to save an intense headache!! Thank you so much
Thanks!! Recently changed to MAC and not enjoying the frustration of all the different keystrokes!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
This is going to be shared at our next team knowledge exchange…..no matter what other guys come up with this tip will definitely make me the star!! 😛 Thanks for sharing
Thank you!!
I have been looking all over for this!!!!
WOW! I see alot of people are having this problem, not just me…. drove me nuts for a month until i had the idea to search up the solution lol
anyways, thanks!!!
THANK YOU!
New to Mac…
Couldn’t find this anywhere!
THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH for posting this tip!!!! It was so frustrating trying to figure out something that seems so simple as skipping to the next line within a cell. I think it was an inside joke by Microsoft played at the expense of Mac users. Darn Microsoft! Well. . . I still love my Mac!
Spent 15 minutes trying to figure it out hitting all kinds of combinations, googled and found you.
THANK YOU.
Son of a gun! Thanks for this post. You’ve obviously done me and many others in the world much good with this post. 🙂
Awesome. I tried every key combo or at least I thought I did. THANK YOU.
Thank you so much dude!!!!!
Thx!!
Thanks! You save my Day.
Thank you man!!!
Your advice helped me a lot!!!
Thanks so much…. this has solved a really irritating problem.
Here it is 4 years since the original post and this is still uber useful!
thanks!!
Thank you!
Thank you! Really helpful
Thanks a ton!
just wonder how many people suffered from this!
Thanks!
Thanks, man!
Another appreciative mac user. Thanks!
Thanks, your post still lives and is still very useful!
I agree with the previous commenter of 2014… 5 years later, your post is still life saver! Mac can be annoying and “Help” being so useless. Thank you, thank YOU!
Thank you very much !!! For ever this post would be helpful if mac still chose with this awkward combination of keys
This post really help me. Thank you!
Thanks so much for this AWESOME tip.
I was going crazy not knowing how to do this so-very-often required feature of adding new lines to an excel cell on Mac.
You are a life saver Todd 🙂
thank you!! mac version of excel help is the worst!! i thought my alt key was broken!!
Thank you sooooooo much!
I too couldn’t find it in the Excel Help, so thank you for sharing your knowledge. I tried other variants of ‘function’ keys – except option +command + return.
…. maybe Microsoft should include it in their general help for Mac users?
THANK YOU!!!
Thanks! I couldn’t figure this out either.
OMG, amazing! Thank you!!! This has been driving me nuts and I couldn’t find it in the excel help. I think I tried every combo but this one, haha. Thanks heaps again 😀
Thanks for this information, as did many others before me, I searched Microsoft help and could not find this information, even though I do it all the time on a Windows OS.
What a relief! Thanks so much for posting
Thank you so much!! I was crazy trying many things!!! LOL
Thank you so much! I haven’t used Excel X for Mac for a while and this really came in handy!
I really appreciate this tip. Works great!
Oh man… I’ve been struggling with this for a long time.
Thank you!
🙁 didn’t work for me
Great tip and not easy to find in excel help for the Mac.
Wow! 3 years later and your post is still relevant. THANKS!!
GOD BLESS YOU!!!
THANK YOU !
Todd you saved me
BIG LOVE
Amazing. So helpful, thank you!
Tx’s a lot.
Have been searching quite some time to figure this one out.
Much appreciated.
thanks… it worked.. 🙂
Thank you for the post, you save my time 😉
thank you so much!! worked like a charm! <3
Thank u so much…..
OMG! You just saved my life…. I have been going crazy and needed to get this task done ASAP.
Thank you!
BRILLIANT!!!! Lifesaver 🙂
Yaay! A thank you …from six years on! Carol
Thanks!
Thank you for allowing to keep my hair on!
Thank you so much!! This was driving me crazy….!
Phew!!!!
Bless you!!!!!!!!
MAY GOD BLESS YOU!!!!
Very helpful. thanks!