What’s the first thing that comes to mind with ‘Merge Cells in Google Sheets‘? Not a lot I’m guessing. I mean, why would you want to mess up the spreadsheet?
Well, it doesn’t have to mess it up. It can make reading text, headings, comments etc a lot easier.
Note: Quick(ish) reminder, that when you use the merge option, some of the analyse options won’t work. For more info, have a look at Formatting and it’s Impact on Excel Analytics (yes, I know it’s MS Excel, but it’s still relevant).
What does Merging Cells do?
Put simply – the selected number of cells (at least two) become a single large cell in the spreadsheet.
(Any one else thinking of the Spice Girls ‘Two Become One’?)
You can merge any number of cells together, but they do have to be next to each other.
The option will let you merge horizontally (across the columns), vertically (down the rows) and a range (across columns and down rows).
When is it useful?
OK – we know what it does, but why should you use it?
Spreadsheet Headings
One example is for headings (normally at the top of your spreadsheet).
When you type the heading in, it’s left aligned in the single cell.
I’ll admit, sure it works, but it doesn’t look good, and it’s not clear that ‘Sales Forecast’ is the heading/title of the sheet.
What if, it was centred?
Well, with a little extra formatting (I increased the font size), it now looks like a proper heading.
Make the comments easier to read
How often have you had to add a column in for comments?
They can end up being difficult to read, due to their size.
Sure, you can make the columns wider, that’s isn’t always useful (e.g. scrolling and printing).
Instead you can choose to keep the column widths the same/normal width. Instead merge a couple of cells together.
This can be useful when you only want a few rows/lines to be larger.
How to merge cells in Google Sheets
We’ve seen the reasons to merge, but where’s the option and how do you use it?
First thing to know – is you need to select at least two cells for the option to be available.
Note: The option will be grayed out if you select cells that can’t all be merged together.
Interesting Fact
You can select all the cells in the sheet and merge them into a single cell.
I don’t know why you’d want to do it – but you can. 😄
Select the cells to be merged. If you’ve already got information in a cell, start there (making it the first cell).
Note: Only data in the top left corner (first) cell will be kept. Anything else (in the selected cells) will be deleted when you merge.
Merge in the Menu
If you prefer to use the menus – it’s under Format > Merge Cells.
Choose which of the options you prefer:
Note: Some will be greyed out if you can’t use them. Based on the cells selected.
Note: It doesn’t matter what you select if they are the same row/column.
- Merge all – merge all of the selected cells together
- Merge horizontally/vertically – merge the cells in the chosen direction together.
Merge in the Toolbar
The option is also available on the toolbar.
Select the range, then click the button, or use the drop-down arrow to select the direction.
Merged into a Single Cell
In our example the range of 7 selected cells, are merged into a single cell.
When you select it, the “blue cell select” outline shows they are a single cell, rather than the individuals.
Unmerge
You may have noticed in the command that the final option is ‘Unmerge’.
The first option we normally go for, if we’ve made a mistake is Undo. And this will work most of the time.
However, if you’ve moved on to other things, and now realise that you don’t like/need the merge, then undo will ‘undo’ all of the work you’ve just done.
Instead, select the merged cells, and go back to the command (menu or toolbar), and click Unmerge.
The range will return to the individual cells.
Next Steps
Need some specific help with your Google Sheets spreadsheet? Book a Personalised Training session where we can work on your questions.
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