- You can merge cells in Microsoft Excel as a quick and easy way to create titles, or to spread data neatly across columns and rows.
- There are several different types of merges you can perform in Excel, but note that all merges will delete all data except the values in the upper-leftmost cell.
- You can also unmerge cells, but they may then need editing to be realigned and resized correctly.
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Merging cells is an easy task in Excel, and there are several different default merge styles. You can "Merge and Center" (ideal for a title), "Merge Across" (which merges a cell across columns), or "Merge Cells" (which combines cells across both columns and rows).
In all cases, this will only bring over the content of the cell on the upper-leftmost cell. If there's other data across the cells you're trying to merge, you'll receive a warning saying that merging cells only keeps the upper-left values and discards all others.
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How to merge and center
1. Highlight the cells you want to merge and center.
2. Click on "Merge & Center," which should be displayed in the "Alignment" section of the toolbar at the top of your screen.
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The top row of cells here is selected.
3. The cells will now be merged with the data centered in the merged cell.
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The selected cells will merge to become one bigger cell.
How to merge across
1. Highlight the cells you want to merge.
2. Click on the arrow just next to "Merge and Center."
3. Scroll down to click on "Merge Across."
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Selecting "Merge Across" will specifically merge only rows.
4. The value on the far-left will now be the sole value for the merged cells, though it'll keep previous alignments steady. For example, a left-aligned value will stay in the left side of the fully merged cell.
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Alignments don't shift.
How to merge cells
1. Highlight the cells you want to merge.
2. Click on the arrow just next to "Merge and Center."
3. Scroll down to click on "Merge Cells".
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This will merge both rows and columns into one large cell, with alignment intact.
4. This will merge the content of the upper-left cell across all highlighted cells.
How to unmerge cells
1. Highlight the combined cell you want to unmerge.
2. Click on the arrow just next to "Merge and Center."
3. Click on "Unmerge."
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"Unmerge" will split the cells back into normal size and order.
4. Note that unmerging cells won't bring back data previously erased by the merging.
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