ALT+ENTER Fails to Insert Hard Carriage Return After Pasting

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, versions 5.0, 5.0a

SYMPTOMS

When you click the formula bar and press ALT+ENTER under Windows, or CTRL+OPTION+RETURN on the Macintosh, Microsoft Excel fails to insert a hard carriage return.

CAUSE

This problem may occur when you do the following:

• You copy text in a cell, click the formula bar, copy a portion of the text in the cell, paste the text in the formula bar, and then press ALT+ENTER under Windows, or CTRL+OPTION+RETURN on the Macintosh.

      -or-
  

• You copy text that contains a hard carriage return, paste the text to another cell, click the formula bar, and then press ALT+ENTER under Windows, or CTRL+OPTION+RETURN on the Macintosh.

  NOTE: If you then click an empty cell and press ALT+ENTER under Windows, or CTRL+OPTION+RETURN on the Macintosh, Microsoft Excel may paste the text that you copied earlier instead of inserting a hard carriage return.

WORKAROUNDS

To work around this problem, quit and restart Microsoft Excel.

You can also try using in-cell editing instead of editing in the formula bar.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

The ALT+ENTER keystroke is used to insert a hard carriage return in a cell in order to continue typing text on a second line in that cell.

REFERENCES

For more information about inserting carriage returns, click the Index tab in Microsoft Help, type the following text

   carriage return

For more information about inserting carriage returns in Microsoft Excel version 5.0, choose the Search button in Help and type:

   tips