How to wrap text in a cell in LibreOffice Calc

An image is worth a thousand words… so I got 2 thousand words (Plus change) right here:

1. Select in the Menu: Format → Cells…

   

2. Select in the Format Cells window: Alignment Tab

   

3. Select Wrap Text Automatically from the Properties section.

   The end result will be something similar to this:

   

Note that, at least up to LibreOffice 4.0, this option only works on cells that I written in after the option is activated. It will not automatically wrap cells created before.¹ See the following image:

The cell above was written before the option was activated. The bottom cell was written after the option was activated.

¹ For those wanting to wrap all of their already existing cells in a spreadsheet, simply execute Ctrl+A, following by Ctrl+C, and finally Ctrl+V.

You can use Format > Cells > Alignment to have a variety of effects including Wrap text automatically.
Use Ctrl+Enter to have more than one line of text per cell if that's what you mean.

Manually

Type control + enter from inside a cell.

Automatically

Seems bugged if you set it before editing the cell: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=57519

Setting the 'wrap' from a column or field in the tab 'alignment' works but you need to do this after inserting text.

Select the cell, follow the path "Format\Cells\Allignment" and mark "Wrap text automatically".

This extension for calc create a toolbar which has button for wrap text in selected cell(s), unwrap text in selected cell(s), insert copied row(s) or cell(s), insert copied column(s)or cell(s) and paste value

http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center/wrap-unwrap-insert-copied-row-or-column-and-paste-value/releases/1.0.1

In case of an imported xlsx file (but I not sure whether the file being xlsx-format is the point), the Wrap Text Automatically simply did not work, until I checked "Optimal Height" in Format/Row/.

Cell wrapping by "Format->Cells->Allignment->Wrap text automatically" makes it wrap horizontally.
To Wrap it completely, You need to select the cell or all the rows and select "Optimal Row Height" which will automatically increases the row height according to the text within...

Hope this helps:)

Here's how to add a shortcut icon to toggle "Wrap text automatically" on and off:

Doing it one time through the Format Cells menu is great and all, but I use this operation all the time. Let's add a shortcut button, shall we?

Click View --> Toolbars --> Customize.
In the Toolbar drop down select Formatting. Now in the Toolbar Content section scroll down and click on Justified, since I want to add my cell wrap icon just after that one.

Click Add, then choose Format from the "Category" menu and Automatic Row Break from the "Commands" menu. Here's what those menus look like:

Click Add then Close.

Now click on Modify --> Change Icon... and choose an icon you think looks half-way decent. I chose this one:

when done, click Ok as necessary to exit the menus, then click on View --> Toolbars and ensure the "Formatting" toolbar we just added the icon to is visible. It will have a check mark next to it to indicate it is visible.

Here's what my icons look like now:

Focus in on this area:

Here's the icon I just added right after the "Justify" icon.

Select a cell and click this icon to toggle "Automatic Row Break" (ie: "Wrap text automatically") on and off, just like you can do in Microsoft Excel!

Demo'ed in LibreOffice 4.2.8.2, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

As far as I can make out, you select wherever you want text wrapped, a cell, row, column, or the whole page or document, then click the "wrap" button on the toolbar. It's next to the three "align" buttons. You may now find at least two "sub issues".
The cell and all cells in that row have been extended vertically to hold all the text. The solution is to force the row height back to the same as all the others by Format>Rows>Height and select required height or the default. Now you may find that when you narrow the column width only the bottom row oftext is displayed, that is, the last word or two and a blank to the end of the line. You probably want to see the first few words, so go to the Align (Top) button on the toolbar. If you don't see what you want on the toolbar you have to go Select required>Format>Cells and in the window select the Align tab and work from there, where you can align and also select wrap in the properties section.