Extend Data into Adjacent Cells

[CraigS26]

2016 Hm-Stndnt Office Excel: On rare occasions I'll type a Heading's characters above numbers and the visible typing across multi-cells Stops before the Name / Note completion.
I really think in the past I used a (Home Tab) Clear Command (ie) all, contents, format after hi-lighting desired extra cells ... to extend the data 1-2-3 cells over - but that didn't work today.
I stumbled onto - Merge Right - and THAT worked.
IS Merge always THE Command to use OR do you Experts have another Go-To Method for this scenario?
Thanks as always!

EXTEND DATA into CELLS POST.png

[HansV]

From When does Excel decide to overflow text into adjacent cells, or cut them at the boundary?

• The cell does not have "Wrap Text" turned on
• The cell is not a merged cell
• The cell contains a value that exceeds the width of the cell
• The adjacent cell is empty* and not a merged cell
• The cell has any of the following horizontal alignments:
  • General
  • Left (Indent)
  • Center
  • Right (Indent)
  • Center across selection
    (Right overlaps the cell to the left; center overlaps on both sides.)
• The cell contents are not rotated (i.e. orientation is set to 0°) (Excel 2010 only?)
• The cell contains a text value. Numerical and date values get converted to ####, or to scientific notation, instead of overlapping adjacent empty cells.
• The worksheet does not have "Show Formulas" turned on.

Selecting a cell plus one or more cells to the right and setting Horizontal Alignment to Center across Selection may also do what you want.

[CraigS26]

Thanks, hans. You found the perfect Thread to give me although the various Forum post-ers had mixed ways of dealing with it.
I DID note the guy who said "Don't want to use Merge (I used) as That is sometimes inappropriate" - And That is why I posted here about how any of you Handle this.
More than enough here to use next time.
Thanks again!

[kdock]

I DID note the guy who said "Don't want to use Merge (I used) as That is sometimes inappropriate"

Hey CraigS26,
I agree with that guy. Merging cells occasionally interferes with other functions. Some are esoteric, but if you can avoid them, you won't run into an issue and not understand why what you're trying to do went wrong. The last thing you'll suspect at that point is merged cells. You may forget that you even merged the cells in the first place - it's not always obvious.
Based on your original post, I'd go with the first thing on Hans' list - turn Wrap Text on in the cell. It's easier to troubleshoot down the line, too.
Best,
Kim

[CraigS26]

Thanks Kim for the Reply, and hans again for the first.
I actually Want to Extend data - horizontally - Vs Wrap Text Vertical but being reminded of Wrap Text is helpful. Used it once and forgot How I did it.
I'm such a simple user of Excel I Think Merge Right should be OK for me (rare that I need this) but I've saved hans site and a 2nd for future needs.
Best to all!