Discussion on:

Use diagonal borders to label Excel cells

I've always wanted to do this but never could be bothered spending the time even searching on t'internet for a solution. I'm using creaking, but trusty old 2000 (yes, even 9 years later!) but I interpreted the instructions from the 2007 guidance. Cool.

Can you please send me the equivalent Excel 2000 method of using the diagonal borders technique?

I also have Office 2000 and could use it! Thanks!
sbacheler@itgnetworks.com

Hopefully this is close to the same method as Office 2000:
Highlight the cell where you want the diagonal split, right click and select Format Cells..
Select the Border tab
There are two diagonal border options at the bottom. (I used the one on the bottom right [\] to follow the original example) Click OK.
Type some (10) spaces then your text, hit Alt+Enter twice then enter the bottom line of text.

Couldn't see anything diagonal or different - didn't get it.

Unlike another reader, I'm not bright enough to "translate" the 2007 instructions into Office 2000. (It would also have been nice to mention that this was a 2007-only tip, but...) Is there any way you can send me the 2000 variation? (You have my email address.) Thanks for the tips, but don't forget the army of us out here still using Off.2000 - we own it, it works, it meets our needs, etc. Thanks.

In Office 2003 I followed steps then I put my cursor right before the word Sales and backed spaced 2 times.

This seemed to work great.

I don't get it. Figure A doesn't show any diagonal borders at all. What is this supposed to be good for? Can't you just change the alignement of the cell to be at an angle and then add regular borders?

... is in the fact that you can type two lines of text with the alt+enter, then use the diagonal border between the words. The spacing is relative to your default cell width and font being used, so add/delete spacing as needed. The ctrl+enter will autofit the cell to the contents in both height and width.

For versions pre-2007, the borders are in Format -> Cells -> Borders tab.

Figure A in the article had black fill hiding the border
http://tinyurl.com/28fo86

One more not I had to use the left ALT key on my laptop

Maybe you should be writing the Tips. As a number of other readers seem to have suggested, the whole purpose of the Tip was obscure until you enlightened us.

I didn't have any problem adding the border in Excel 2003 (Format -> Cells -> Borders Tab), but it did take a while to get the initial 8 spaces to show. You must have Word Wrap turned on or "Regions" won't show, and the column must be wide enough or the spaces will get pushed to a row above "Sales."

The only problem with using the Ctrl+Enter method of creating a line break is the formatting if the the information is ever copied to another application (Word for example). The line breaks in the cell are read as a wing ding box.

Using the Indent and wrapping the text will solve the wing ding issue.

Mostly useless...

Useless - unless your boss demands that you use them. Many people put demands on you that you can't fathom, but you must do it. This just shows that it can be done.

This is awesome!!
Thanks,
Mary

What the heck is diagonal? Your example has nothing in it that is diagonal.

With the Sales/Region headers colored black, no borders of any type are visible.