How to Merge Cells

The video shows the traditional method of merging cells through the Format Cells menu before showing the Merge & Center option in the Home ribbon. You can also find the standard Merge Cells option from the Home ribbon by clicking the dropdown arrow to the right of Merge & Center.

There is an additional Merge Across option that lets you merge the same set of columns across multiple rows at the same time. If you simply want a wider column in which to enter text, it is preferable to adjust the column width because merging cells can restrict the ability of Excel to auto-adjust row heights. As you will often want to merge cells containing extended text, this can cause problems because users may not realise they can't see all the text in a cell.

When merging cells, the format and content of cells seems to adopt that of the top-left cell. However, there is one crucial exception which can also cause annoyance. If any of the cells in the merged range was locked, the merged cell will also be locked when the sheet is protected. When creating a form or questionnaire, you generally want to restrict a user to certain input cells and you often need to merge cells because Excel's grid layout becomes too restrictive. To avoid having to unlock cells twice, our experts recommend laying out a sheet and getting everything merged that needs to be merged before unlocking any cells.