Merging and Splitting Cells

Merging and splitting cells is one way to control the appearance of your worksheet. Titles of worksheets are typically centered across the top of the columns of information. Excel allows you to merge and center cells to create a title that appears centered in one cell across the top of your workbook. Excel also allows you to reverse this action by "splitting" the cell. Splitting a cell converts a merged cell back to several cells, with the information displayed in the uppermost left cell.

To center and merge cells:

1. Select the cells you want to merge, making sure the text you want centered is in the uppermost left cell.
2. Click the Merge and Center button on the Formatting toolbar.

To split merged cells:

1. Select the merged cell you want to split into several cells.
2. Click the Merge and Center button on the Formatting toolbar.

You can change the alignment of your merged cells by selecting:
Align Left , Center , or Align Right
on the Formatting toolbar.

When you select cells to be merged, Excel will center only the data in the uppermost left cell. All other data will be lost.

To merge and center cells:

1. Select Cells... from the Format menu.
2. Click the Alignment tab on the Format Cells dialog box.
3. Under Text Alignment, click the Horizontal: arrow, and select Center Across Selection from the drop-down list.
4. Click the Merge cells checkbox.

To split cells:

1. Select Cells... from the Format menu.
2. Click the Alignment tab on the Format Cells dialog box.
3. Under Text Alignment, click the Horizontal: arrow, and select General from the drop-down list.
4. Click the Merge cells checkbox to uncheck it.
5. Click OK to accept the changes.