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Text Wrapping for Long Strings in Text Tables


Published: 07 Aug 2015
Last Modified Date: 20 Apr 2023

Question

How to enable text wrapping for long String fields in a text table in Tableau Desktop.

For example, my column widths are non-negotiable, but my long strings are getting truncated with ellipses: 
Roses
Tulips
Rhododen...

I want the text to wrap:
Rhododen
drons

Environment

Tableau Desktop

Answer

When displaying long text in the small size column, text is displayed as "..." . You are unable to display the long text by automatically wrapping the text or resizing the text like Excel does.

Option 1

If there is a space or a line break in the text string, you can wrap the texts by setting the option below. To display a long string wrapped in the cell, see the alternative workaround below: 
  1. Right-click the Dimension and select Format > Alignment  > Automatic > Wrap  > ON
  2. Resize the column height Manually if necessary.
Note: Text wrapping does not work if the width of the header is narrower than the text strings separated by space or a line break.
          Please note that you may need to still manually adjust the width or height of the field. 
          For headers, there is a limit to the number of lines that can be wrapped.

Option 2

If special characters(for example: , . ( ) - etc...) is included in the text string, due to the limitation of current word wrap function, Option1 might not work properly.
In this case, making the column wider manually could be a workaround.
 
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