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I've been working on an Excel assignment where I have a data table of information, and beside it I want to write my analysis and recommendations for each of the lines of data.

Some criteria:

I don't want the lines of the table to be super expanded (vertically) when I create a large block of text beside it (Right now when I expand text boxes to print the document, all the table cells expand too which is really annoying)

The analysis and the actual table values have to be within close proximity of one another (Hyperlinking to another document/a separate part of the worksheet is not ideal)

The new format should be well laid out when printed (So cell comments won't work)

Ideally I envision something like a drop down menu where I can select a category and it will bring up the text within that named category immediately, without having it jump to a very obscure place within the document. Does Excel have anything similar to this kind of capability? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

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  • It would be helpful if you could provide a sample screenshot to demonstrate what you want (and what you've tried and don't want).
    – Atzmon
    Jun 7, 2016 at 21:30

1 Answer 1

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Inserting a text box may be what you need. The text box goes on top of the sheet, so it does not affect the vertical height of any rows.

enter image description here

Insert a text box by choosing Text Box from the Insert ribbon.

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  • Is there any way to contract and expand a text box so that it only shows a preview until I click on it to expand it?
    – Grace L
    Jun 8, 2016 at 16:08
  • I think manually resizing as you need to view the text is your best bet. It's possible you could write some VBA to make it behave how you describe, but it won't be trivial.
    – Excellll
    Jun 9, 2016 at 15:22

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