How to merge and unmerge cells in Microsoft Excel in 4 ways, to clean up your data and formatting
- 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.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
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.
How to merge cells in Excel
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.
3. The cells will now be merged with the data centered in the merged 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."
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.
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".
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."
4. Note that unmerging cells won't bring back data previously erased by the merging.
Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:
How to convert PDFs into Word files and edit them on a Mac computer
How to share a Google Doc and customize its sharing settings
How to change the margins on your Google Docs in two ways
How to change the line spacing on any text in Google Docs, from your desktop or mobile device