Custom formatting to show only a few of the text characters in a cell with a string

[scottjn]

Is there a custom format that will only show, say, 5 characters of a cell that contains text? The way it is set up, I can't really do it with formula like LEFT. Thanks!

[Pete_UK]

Format Cells and Custom Format can only affect the way that numbers are displayed - it does not affect text values (other than font/colour etc.). Perhaps you can narrow the column and use a fixed-width font like Courier so that you can only see the first 5 characters.

Hope this helps.

Pete

[scottjn]

Thanks. I don't need to change the values of the cells. Some of the cell contain long text and bleed over into the adjacent (empty) cells making it visually unappealing. I was hoping I could just show the first few characters.

[Pete_UK]

If the adjacent column is empty, then why not have a formula that uses LEFT(cell,5) and then hide the column with the long text? Or just put a single space in the adjacent cell and copy this down to prevent the long text spilling into that column.

Hope this helps.

Pete

[scottjn]

Thanks. Those would work, just looking for something a little more elegant that doesn't use a helper column. Thanks again.

[Pete_UK]

You're welcome.

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Pete