How to split a single cell in half in Excel (diagonally & horizontally)

Do you want to know how to split a cell in half in Excel (both diagonally and horizontally)?

Want to know how to split a single cell diagonally with two background colors?

After splitting a single cell in half, you want to place text in one part and insert a link in another?

You’re in the right place.

This is the best-researched guide on the above topics.

Let’s start at…

How to split a single cell in half in Excel diagonally (the best method)

This is the best method to split a cell in half (diagonally). Why? See the GIF image (below).

You see that whatever change I make with the cell; the format is not changing. That is what you want, right?

Let me show you how you can split a cell in that way. It is very easy.

# Splitting a single cell in half (Diagonally Down)

Follow these steps:

• Select the cell that you want to split in half. And type your two words with space between them. In my case, I type Employee and Month in the cell B2 and then press Enter

• Now click on the little small arrow on the bottom-right corner of the Alignment group of commands in the Home

• The Format Cells dialog box appears with the Alignment tab open. Keyboard shortcut to open this dialog box is: CTRL + 1

In this dialog box, select the Distributed (Indent) option from the Horizontal menu and Center option from the Vertical menu.

• Now open the Border tab and select the diagonal down border (image below). You can choose also Border Line Style and Border Color from this window.

And finally, click on the OK button.

• And you are done. Here is the output.

# Splitting a cell in half (Diagonally Up)

To split a cell in diagonally up way, choose this border option from the Border tab.

And here is the result.

Split a single cell diagonally with two background colors

Let me show you how you can split a cell diagonally with two background colors.

• Select the cell (already split in half)
• Open the Format Cells dialog box
• Open the Fill tab in the Format Cells dialog box
• Click on the Fill Effects… command
• Fill Effects dialog box will appear
• In the Fill Effects dialog box, choose a color for Color 1 open and choose another color for Color 2 option
• Select the Diagonal down Shading styles
• And finally, click on the OK button (two times)

• You’re done. Here is the output.

How to split a cell diagonally in Excel using objects (effective in some cases)

This is another method of splitting a cell in half in Excel. We shall use the Right Triangle Object to split a cell half in this way.

Let’s start.

• Select a cell that you want to split and input one word (Employee) and make it Top Align.
• Open the Insert tab -> Illustrations group of commands -> Click on the Shapes drop-down -> And select the Right Triangle from the Basic Shapes
• Press and hold the Alt key and place the Right Triangle into the cell.
• Then Flip the triangle horizontally and input the second word (Month).

All the above steps are narrated in the following GIF image.

Split a single cell horizontally

Using the above method, we can also split a cell in half horizontally.

See the image below. I have used the Rectangle to draw the object into the cell. And then I have input a link to the object.

Here is the final output.

Conclusion

So, these are my ways to split a cell in half in Excel. I showed both ways: diagonally and horizontally. Do you know a better way? Let me know in the comment box.

Hope you like this blog post.

Thanks for being with us!

Further Readings

• How to Split Cells in Excel (The Ultimate Guide)
• How to Split One Cell into Two in Excel (5 Useful Methods)
• Excel Split Cell by Delimiter Formula