Indent means to slightly adjust the position of the list/checklist items from its category header to make it easier to read and understand.
In Google Sheets there are multiple ways to indent the cell text and, in this tutorial, we will show you the same.
Indent Text Using Number Formatting
- First, select the cells wherein you want the text to be indented.
- After that, go to the “Format” tab and then click on “Number” and then choose the “Custom number format” option.
- Now, within the “Custom number formats” input field” enter the space by pressing the “Spacebar” key three times and then enter the “@” symbol, and then click on the “Apply” button.
- The moment you click “Apply” the text in the selected cells will get an indent.
- To remove the indent applied using the “Custom number format” and to make the text back to normal, go to the “Format” tab and then click on “Number” and then on “Automatic”.
Note: In the above scenario, we have entered space three times but if you want to increase the indented text more towards the right, press the “Spacebar” tab more to enter more space so that text can move more towards the right.
Apply Indent to Other Cells
- First, select the additional cells, where you want to apply the indent.
- After that, go to the “Format” tab and then click on “Number” and then click on the “@” symbol (already defined custom number formatting in the above steps).
- At this point, that custom number formatting will get applied to the cells.
Indent Using the ARRYFORMULA
If you want to copy the plain text as Indent in the new blank cells, then the “AARYFORMULA” will help you do the same.
- First, go to the cell where you want to copy the cell values as an indent.
- After that, enter the “ARRYFORMULA” with the “&” operator.
=ARRYFORMULA(“ “&A2:A5)
- In the end, close the formula and press enter and the data will get pasted as an indent.
- To remove the indent applied using the formula, you have to copy any cell without an indent and then paste it as “Formats only” to the cells that have indent text.
How this Formula Works
=ARRYFORMULA(“ “&A2:A5)In the “ARRYFORMULA” firstly, we entered the space within the double quotations and after that, we used the “&” operator and then we have given the cell reference (A2:A5) to combine the space and the cell values.
Indent Text Manually Using Spacebar Key
Manually you can only indent the text cell by cell means you cannot select multiple cells at a time to indent their text.
- First, press the “Spacebar” key three times before entering the text into the cell and then enter the text.
- Or, if you already have the text in the cell, double-click on the cell and go towards the extreme left of the text and then press the “Spacebar” key three times to enter the space before the text.
- To remove the indent applied using the “Spacebar” manually, you have to double-click on each cell one by one to remove the space from them.