Maruf Islam
When an entry occupies more than one cell and needs to be positioned in the center, Excel offers a couple of methods to go with. In this article, we’ll show you how to Merge & Center a data entry or a range of data entries in excel.
Suppose, I have a plain list of best published articles in 2020 with Article Sl & Article name.
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3 Easy Methods to Merge and Center Cells in Excel
Method 1: Using Merge & Center Command
Step 1: Select the cells you want to merge along a row.
Step 2: Go to Home Tab>> Alignment Group & Click on Merge & Center command option.
Step 3:Â Click on Merge & Center.
Repeat the method along the rows as many times as you need & will get results like the image below.
Read more: How to Merge Cells in Excel with Data
Method 2: Using Keyboard Shortcuts
Step 1: Select the cells you want to merge along a row & Press ALT key. It’ll enable Commands on Excel Ribbon.
Step 2: Press H for Home.
Step 3:Â Press MÂ for enabling the Merge & Center command option.
Step 4:Â Press CÂ to apply the Merge & Center command.
Repeat the method along the rows as many times as you need & will get results like the image below.
Method 3: Using Format Cells Option
Earlier methods execute merge & center cells one at a time. We can not execute merge & center on multiple cells or range of cells using Merge & Center or Keyboard Shortcuts. However, the Format Cell option does it.
Step 1: Select the cells you want to merge.
Step 2: Right-Click inside any selected cell. A popup window will appear.
Step 3: Click on Format Cell option, Format Cell dialog box will appear.
Step 4:Â From the Format Cell dialog box, Click on Alignment.
Step 5:Â Under the Text Alignment, Make Horizontal drop down option Center Across Selection & Vertical drop down option Center.
Step 6: Click OK. And you are all done.
Now, all the cells are merged & positioned in the center.
You can also use keyboard shortcut CTRL+1;Â Format Cell command box to appear and Follow the sequence Format Cell>>Alignment>> (Text alignment)>>Horizontal (choose Center Across Selection)>> Vertical (choose Center ).
In Case of Column (Merge & Center)
For keeping things simple we use cells only along the rows . If you need to apply merge & center to the cells along the column you can use Merge & Center or Keyboard Shortcuts methods described above. In that case, just change the selection of cells along the column. But be cautious, only the Upper Left Cell Value merges & discards other values. So, you can only use this method in case of duplicate columns.
Suppose, I have a dataset to merge along a column similar to the image below
Step 1: Select cells along a columns you want to merge . Go to Home Tab>> Alignment Group & Click on Merge & Center command option.
Step 2:Â Click on Merge & Center. A warning window will pop up.
Step 3:Â Click OK. It discards duplicate values & merges selected cells along the column.
Conclusion
Merge & Center is a handy tool to get an overview of any dataset. Though options like Merge & Center, keyboard Shortcuts execute merge & center only on one cell data at a time, these two methods are user-friendly in case of concise dataset. On the other hand, Format Cell or CTRL+1 provides option to merge & center a range of data. You can use whatever methods you prefer on the basis of your data set. Hope, you find above mentioned methods user friendly & super easy to use.
