Aligning Your Data—Where It Appears in the Cell

Now let's look at a little more closely at the data you'll enter and how they appear in cells. When you type a textual entry the results appear left-aligned—that is, starting at a cell's left edge—by default, and that's simply because our Roman alphabet proceeds from left to right. But type a number—or what Excel calls a value, and it will position itself by default—that is, for starters—at the cell's right edge, because our number system is Arabic, extending right to left:

Figure 2–9. Choosing sides: Text aligned left, numbers right

Text data entry differs in some important ways from its numeric cousin. For one thing, if you type a lengthy phrase in a cell—and you can actually type over 32,000 characters in a cell—Excel will allow the excess text to spill into adjoining columns: