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

Luckily, a couple of primary expertise are all it’s essential to put collectively an easy-to-read spreadsheet. One is understanding learn how to merge cells in Excel. Whether or not you are planning weblog articles for the upcoming quarter, creating an electronic mail checklist for a focused marketing campaign, or designing Search engine marketing-friendly Google advertisements, merging cells is a helpful approach to arrange your info.
To sharpen your expertise, 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 in 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 info and creating headers, with out the necessity to resize particular person cells. Here is learn how to do it.
Step 1: Spotlight the 2 adjoining cells you wish to merge (I am merging A1 and B1 within the instance).
Step 2: Beneath the House tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Merge Cells’.
Step 3: That is it! You’ve got merged the cells.
Be aware: When combining cells, solely the info within the higher left cell is saved. Be certain that to avoid wasting the knowledge from the opposite cell so it isn’t misplaced. In the event you occur to have knowledge in each A1 and B1, Excel will not merely wipe it. This alert will pop up:
Do not wish to delete the info? Click on ‘Cancel,’ and duplicate/paste the knowledge right into a separate doc or cell earlier than merging. In the event you solely want the knowledge within the upper-left cell, click on ‘OK’ to merge the cells.
Merge and Heart Cells in Excel
Say you are constructing a advertising report and need your titles to be centered above your knowledge. Merge and middle cells by following these steps.
Step 1: Spotlight the cells you wish to merge.
Step 2: Beneath the House tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Merge & Heart.’
Step 3: Your cells will merge and the info might be centered throughout the cell.
Merge Cells in Excel Shortcut
Clicking the right ‘Merge’ operate again and again generally is a drag if it’s essential to mix quite a lot of cells. For quick merging, begin by highlighting the cells you wish to merge. Then, kind the next key mixtures.
Excel Shortcuts for Home windows
- Merge Cells: ALT H+M+M
- Merge & Heart: ALT H+M+C
- Merge Throughout: ALT H+M+A
- Unmerge Cells: ALT H+M+U
Excel Shortcuts for OS
The Apple working system does not have an ALT key, so it’s a must to arrange your individual shortcut to merge cells.
- In Excel, click on ‘Instruments’ underneath the navigation bar.
- Choose ‘Customise Keyboard.’
- A pop-up will seem. Beneath the header ‘Specify a Command’ there are two columns: Classes and Instructions. For Classes, choose ‘House Tab.’ For Instructions, choose ‘Merge Cells.’
- Choose the textual content field underneath ‘Press new keyboard shortcut.’ Kind the important thing mixture in your shortcut. For instance: CONTROL+M.
- Click on ‘OK’ to set your shortcut.
- Now you can use CONTROL+M to merge cells in Excel.
- Arrange extra shortcuts for Merge Throughout, Merge & Heart, or Unmerge.
Merge A number of Cells in Excel
You understand the fundamentals, however now you wish to get artistic and merge greater than two cells. Relying in your desired spreadsheet structure, you should use the Merge Throughout, Merge Cells, or Merge & Heart operate.
1. Merge Throughout
This selection 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 advertisements 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.
Step 2: Beneath the House tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Merge Throughout.’
Step 3: The cells merge throughout all the highlighted space.
2. Merge & Heart
You may merge and middle a number of cells throughout rows and down columns. Simply bear in mind the info within the upper-left cell is the one info that may keep as soon as merged. Within the instance under, I take advantage of ‘Merge & Heart’ to mix rows 15, 16, and 17 with columns F, G, and H.
3. Merge Cells
The ‘Merge Cells’ operate is good to mix a number of adjoining cells throughout rows and columns. It really works similar to the ‘Merge & Heart’ operate, besides the info might be left-aligned as a substitute of centered after merging.
Merge Cells in Excel With out Shedding Knowledge
Wish to merge cells with out shedding info from all however the higher left cell? Simple. You need to use the ampersand (&) or the CONCATENATE operate to mix knowledge 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 knowledge. Be certain 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 depart an area between cell knowledge.
Step 4: Kind & once more earlier than selecting the following cell. Repeat for all of the cells you wish to mix. An instance system is =D5&” “&E5.
Step 5: Hit Enter. Within the instance, you possibly can see how the textual content from cells D5 and E5 merged into F5.
CONCATENATE or CONCAT
The CONCATENATE operate (or CONCAT) is one other approach to mix two or extra textual content strings collectively.
The system 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 affix. For this operate, you possibly can 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 system bar, kind =CONCATENATE(
Step 3: A system 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 knowledge, you need to embrace ,” “, throughout the system. [i.e. =CONCATENATE(D5,” “,E5)]
Step 4: Hit Enter. The information out of your chosen cells might be mixed within the CONCATENATE cell.
Why Cannot I Merge Cells in Excel?
So much can go incorrect in case your system or formatting is not arrange appropriately. In the event you’re struggling to merge cells, strive these troubleshooting suggestions.
- Make sure you’re not actively enhancing a cell you wish to merge. The ‘Merge’ icon might be shaded out for those who’re in the midst of making 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’d wish to merge.
- Test if one of many cells is a part of an Excel desk. Tables have a singular format that do not enable merging. You may inform you’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.
- Have a look at the sharing permissions of the Excel workbook. If it isn’t shared with you or is protected, you will not be capable to make any modifications or merge cells.
Unmerge Cells
Possibly you bought slightly excited making an attempt out your new expertise and merged one cell too many. Do not panic. Merely unmerge your cells by following these steps.
- Spotlight the cells you wish to unmerge.
- Beneath the House tab, click on the ‘Merge’ icon and select ‘Unmerge Cells.’
- Your cells will return to the unique formatting, however you’ll have misplaced the knowledge from earlier than the merge.
- In the event you want that info, 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 be aware: This text was initially revealed in Could 2021 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.