How to Merge Cells in Excel in 5 Minutes or Less

Knowing the ins and outs of Excel is essential for organizing knowledge, understanding analytics, and getting essentially the most out of your advertising efforts. The device is nice for rapidly processing huge quantities of information, however it may be overwhelming in case you do not spend the vast majority of your workday whipping up spreadsheets.

Fortunately, a couple of primary expertise are all you want to put collectively an easy-to-read spreadsheet. One is understanding how to merge cells in Excel. Whether you are planning weblog articles for the upcoming quarter, creating an electronic mail listing for a focused marketing campaign, or designing Website positioning-friendly Google advertisements, merging cells is a useful manner to arrange your data.

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

• How to merge two cells
• How to merge and middle cells
• How to merge a number of cells
• How to merge cells with out shedding knowledge
• A shortcut to merge cells
• Why cannot I merge cells?

Don’t need to start from scratch? Use these free Excel templates as a basis on your personal advertising spreadsheets.

How to Merge Two Cells in Excel

Merging is a manner to flip two small cells into one new, giant cell. This is beneficial for organizing data and creating headers, with out the necessity to resize particular person cells. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Highlight the 2 adjoining cells you need to merge (I’m merging A1 and B1 in the instance).

Source

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

Source

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

Source

Note: When combining cells, solely the information in the higher left cell is saved. Make certain to save the data from the opposite cell so it is not misplaced. If you occur to have knowledge in each A1 and B1, Excel will not merely wipe it. This alert will pop up:

Source

Don’t need to delete the information? Click ‘Cancel,’ and replica/paste the data right into a separate doc or cell earlier than merging. If you solely want the data in the upper-left cell, click on ‘OK’ to merge the cells.

How to Merge and Center Cells in Excel

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

Step 1: Highlight the cells you need to merge.

Source

Step 2: Under the Home tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Merge & Center.’

Source

Step 3: Your cells will merge and the information shall be centered inside the cell.

Source

How to Merge Cells in Excel Shortcut

Clicking the right ‘Merge’ operate time and again generally is a drag in case you want to mix plenty of cells. For quick merging, start by highlighting the cells you need to merge. Then, kind the next key combos.

Excel Shortcuts for Windows

1. Merge Cells: ALT H+M+M
2. Merge & Center: ALT H+M+C
3. Merge Across: 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 you could have to arrange your individual shortcut to merge cells.

1. In Excel, click on ‘Tools’ below the navigation bar.
2. Select ‘Customize Keyboard.’
3. A pop-up will seem. Under the header ‘Specify a Command’ there are two columns: Categories and Commands. For Categories, choose ‘Home Tab.’ For Commands, choose ‘Merge Cells.’
4. Select the textual content field below ‘Press new keyboard shortcut.’ Type the important thing mixture on your shortcut. For instance: CONTROL+M.
5. Click ‘OK’ to set your shortcut.
6. You can now use CONTROL+M to merge cells in Excel.
7. Set up extra shortcuts for Merge Across, Merge & Center, or Unmerge.

Source

How to Merge Multiple Cells in Excel

You know the fundamentals, however now you need to get inventive and merge greater than two cells. Depending in your desired spreadsheet format, you need to use the Merge Across, Merge Cells, or Merge & Center operate.

1. Merge Across

This choice is used to merge cells inside a single row. You cannot use ‘Merge Across’ to mix cells inside a column or throughout a number of rows.

In this instance, I’m establishing PPC advertisements and need 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: Highlight all of the cells you need to merge inside the row.

Source

Step 2: Under the Home tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Merge Across.’

Source

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

Source

2. Merge & Center

You can merge and middle a number of cells throughout rows and down columns. Just bear in mind the information in the upper-left cell is the one data that may keep as soon as merged. In the instance beneath, I take advantage of ‘Merge & Center’ to mix rows 15, 16, and 17 with columns F, G, and H.

Source

Source

3. Merge Cells

The ‘Merge Cells’ operate is right to mix a number of adjoining cells throughout rows and columns. It works similar to the ‘Merge & Center’ operate, besides the information shall be left-aligned as a substitute of centered after merging.

Source

How to Merge Cells in Excel Without Losing Data

Want to merge cells with out shedding data from all however the higher left cell? Easy. You can use the ampersand (&) or the CONCATENATE operate to mix knowledge from two or extra cells.

In the instance beneath, I’m creating copy for Instagram and need to mix the caption with its corresponding link.

Ampersand

Step 1: Choose the cell the place you need to put the merged knowledge. Make certain that is separate from the cells you are merging.

Step 2: Type = in the clean cell and choose the primary cell to mix.

Step 3: Type & and use ” ” to depart an area between cell knowledge.

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

Step 5: Hit Enter. In the instance, you’ll be able to see how the textual content from cells D5 and E5 merged into F5.

Source

CONCATENATE or CONCAT

The CONCATENATE operate (or CONCAT) is one other manner 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 generally is a textual content worth, quantity, or cell reference. Text2 is the following merchandise to be part of. For this operate, you’ll be able to merge up to 255 objects or 8,192 characters.

Step 1: Highlight a brand new clean cell the place you need to merge the information.

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

Source

Step 3: A formulation builder will pop up, permitting you to select Text1, Text2, and so forth. Select the cells you need to merge, in order from first to final. To embrace areas between the cell knowledge, you will need to embrace ,” “, inside the formulation. [i.e. =CONCATENATE(D5,” “,E5)]

Source

Step 4: Hit Enter. The knowledge out of your chosen cells shall be mixed in the CONCATENATE cell.

Source

Why Can’t I Merge Cells in Excel?

Quite a bit can go flawed in case your formulation or formatting is not arrange appropriately. If you are struggling to merge cells, strive these troubleshooting tips.

1. Ensure you are not actively enhancing a cell you need to merge. The ‘Merge’ icon shall be shaded out in case you’re in the center of creating modifications. To repair this, merely hit ‘Enter’ to cease enhancing or click on onto one other cell earlier than clicking again to the cell you need to merge.

1. Check if one of many cells is a part of an Excel desk. Tables have a singular format that do not permit merging. You can let you know’re on a Table 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. Look on the sharing permissions of the Excel workbook. If it is not shared with you or is protected, you will not have the option to make any modifications or merge cells.

How to Unmerge Cells

Maybe you bought slightly excited attempting out your new expertise and merged one cell too many. Don’t panic. Simply unmerge your cells by following these steps.

1. Highlight the cells you need to unmerge.
2. Under the Home tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Unmerge Cells.’
3. Your cells will return to the unique formatting, however you should have misplaced the data from earlier than the merge.
4. If you want that data, click on ‘Command’ + Z (OS) or ‘CTRL’ +Z (Windows) to undo your actions till you see the information pop up.