Merge Cells in Excel in 5 Minutes or Much less

Understanding the ins and outs of Excel is important for organizing information, understanding analytics, and getting essentially the most out of your advertising efforts. The instrument is nice for shortly processing huge quantities of knowledge, however it may be overwhelming in case you do not spend nearly all of your workday whipping up spreadsheets.

Luckily, a couple of fundamental abilities are all it is advisable to put collectively an easy-to-read spreadsheet. One is figuring out the right way to merge cells in Excel. Whether or not you are planning weblog articles for the upcoming quarter, creating an e-mail checklist for a focused marketing campaign, or designing Website positioning-friendly Google adverts, merging cells is a useful approach to set up your data.

To sharpen your abilities, we’ll cowl a number of methods to mix cells.

Do not wish to begin from scratch? Use these free Excel templates as a basis on your personal advertising spreadsheets.

Merge Two Cells in Excel

Merging is a approach to flip two small cells into one new, massive cell. That is helpful for organizing data and creating headers, with out the necessity to resize particular person cells. Here is the right way to do it.

Step 1: Spotlight the 2 adjoining cells you wish to merge (I am merging A1 and B1 within the instance).

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Step 2: Below the House tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Merge Cells’.

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Step 3: That is it! You’ve got merged the cells.

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Notice: When combining cells, solely the info within the higher left cell is saved. Ensure that to save lots of the knowledge from the opposite cell so it is not misplaced. When you occur to have information in each A1 and B1, Excel will not merely wipe it. This alert will pop up:

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Do not wish to delete the info? Click on ‘Cancel,’ and replica/paste the knowledge right into a separate doc or cell earlier than merging. When you solely want the knowledge within the upper-left cell, click on ‘OK’ to merge the cells.

Merge and Middle Cells in Excel

Say you are constructing a advertising report and need your titles to be centered above your information. Merge and middle cells by following these steps.

Step 1: Spotlight the cells you wish to merge.

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Step 2: Below the House tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Merge & Middle.’

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Step 3: Your cells will merge and the info will probably be centered throughout the cell.

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Merge Cells in Excel Shortcut

Clicking the right ‘Merge’ perform again and again could be a drag if it is advisable to mix quite a lot of cells. For quick merging, begin by highlighting the cells you wish to merge. Then, kind the next key combos.

Excel Shortcuts for Home windows

1. Merge Cells: ALT H+M+M
2. Merge & Middle: ALT H+M+C
3. Merge Throughout: ALT H+M+A
4. Unmerge Cells: ALT H+M+U

Excel Shortcuts for OS

The Apple working system does not have an ALT key, so it’s important to arrange your individual shortcut to merge cells.

1. In Excel, click on ‘Instruments’ underneath the navigation bar.
2. Choose ‘Customise Keyboard.’
3. A pop-up will seem. Below the header ‘Specify a Command’ there are two columns: Classes and Instructions. For Classes, choose ‘House Tab.’ For Instructions, choose ‘Merge Cells.’
4. Choose the textual content field underneath ‘Press new keyboard shortcut.’ Kind the important thing mixture on your shortcut. For instance: CONTROL+M.
5. Click on ‘OK’ to set your shortcut.
6. Now you can use CONTROL+M to merge cells in Excel.
7. Arrange further shortcuts for Merge Throughout, Merge & Middle, or Unmerge.

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Merge A number of Cells in Excel

You recognize the fundamentals, however now you wish to get inventive and merge greater than two cells. Relying in your desired spreadsheet structure, you should utilize the Merge Throughout, Merge Cells, or Merge & Middle perform.

1. Merge Throughout

This feature is used to merge cells inside a single row. You may’t use ‘Merge Throughout’ to mix cells inside a column or throughout a number of rows.

On this instance, I am establishing PPC adverts and wish to see my description copy in row 17. If I merely resize column F, my desk can have an excessive amount of area between column F and G. Merging a number of cells throughout row 17 lets me see the copy and maintain the desk neat.

Step 1: Spotlight all of the cells you wish to merge throughout the row.

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Step 2: Below the House tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Merge Throughout.’

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Step 3: The cells merge throughout the complete highlighted space.

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2. Merge & Middle

You may merge and middle a number of cells throughout rows and down columns. Simply keep in mind the info within the upper-left cell is the one data that may keep as soon as merged. Within the instance under, I take advantage of ‘Merge & Middle’ to mix rows 15, 16, and 17 with columns F, G, and H.

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3. Merge Cells

The ‘Merge Cells’ perform is good to mix a number of adjoining cells throughout rows and columns. It really works similar to the ‘Merge & Middle’ perform, besides the info will probably be left-aligned as a substitute of centered after merging.

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Merge Cells in Excel With out Dropping Information

Wish to merge cells with out dropping data from all however the higher left cell? Straightforward. You should utilize the ampersand (&) or the CONCATENATE perform to mix information from two or extra cells.

Within the instance under, I am creating copy for Instagram and wish to mix the caption with its corresponding hyperlink.

Ampersand

Step 1: Select the cell the place you wish to put the merged information. Ensure that that is separate from the cells you are merging.

Step 2: Kind = within the clean cell and choose the primary cell to mix.

Step 3: Kind & and use ” ” to go away an area between cell information.

Step 4: Kind & once more earlier than selecting the following cell. Repeat for all of the cells you wish to mix. An instance formulation is =D5&” “&E5.

Step 5: Hit Enter. Within the instance, you may see how the textual content from cells D5 and E5 merged into F5.

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CONCATENATE or CONCAT

The CONCATENATE perform (or CONCAT) is one other approach to mix two or extra textual content strings collectively.

The formulation in Excel is =CONCATENATE (text1,text2,…). Text1 is the primary cell to merge and could be a textual content worth, quantity, or cell reference. Text2 is the following merchandise to affix. For this perform, you may merge as much as 255 gadgets or 8,192 characters.

Step 1: Spotlight a brand new clean cell the place you wish to merge the info.

Step 2: Within the formulation bar, kind =CONCATENATE(

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Step 3: A formulation builder will pop up, permitting you to decide on Text1, Text2, and so forth. Choose the cells you wish to merge, so as from first to final. To incorporate areas between the cell information, you could embrace ,” “, throughout the formulation. [i.e. =CONCATENATE(D5,” “,E5)]

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Step 4: Hit Enter. The info out of your chosen cells will probably be mixed within the CONCATENATE cell.

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Why Cannot I Merge Cells in Excel?

Lots can go mistaken in case your formulation or formatting is not arrange appropriately. When you’re struggling to merge cells, strive these troubleshooting ideas.

1. Make sure you’re not actively enhancing a cell you wish to merge. The ‘Merge’ icon will probably be shaded out in case you’re in the course of making adjustments. To repair this, merely hit ‘Enter’ to cease enhancing or click on onto one other cell earlier than clicking again to the cell you’d wish to merge.

1. Examine if one of many cells is a part of an Excel desk. Tables have a singular format that do not permit merging. You may let you know’re on a Desk if the ‘Chart Design’ or ‘Format’ tabs throughout the highest of your workbook are highlighted in inexperienced and the ‘Merge’ icon is shaded out.

1. Have a look at the sharing permissions of the Excel workbook. If it is not shared with you or is protected, you will not have the ability to make any adjustments or merge cells.

Unmerge Cells

Possibly you bought somewhat excited attempting out your new abilities and merged one cell too many. Do not panic. Merely unmerge your cells by following these steps.

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1. Spotlight the cells you wish to unmerge.
2. Below the House tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Unmerge Cells.’
3. Your cells will return to the unique formatting, however you’ll have misplaced the knowledge from earlier than the merge.
4. When you want that data, click on ‘Command’ + Z (OS) or ‘CTRL’ +Z (Home windows) to undo your actions till you see the info pop up.

Excel Shortcuts Make Life Simpler

Whereas utilizing spreadsheets can really feel intimidating at first, with the ideas and shortcuts above, you will have it down very quickly. 

Editor’s notice: This text was initially printed in Could 2021 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.