Merge and Center in Excel

Sometimes, you may want to have the contents of a single cell spread across multiple cells in a spreadsheet. This technique helps with readability, and it’s called merging and centering. Let’s learn how to merge and center in Microsoft Excel.

How to Merge and Center in Excel (Across Columns)

Excel offers multiple ways to merge and center cells. The easiest is used when you want to merge the contents of one cell across multiple cells in the same row. For example, look at cell B1 below. Imagine that you want to merge across cells C1 and D1 as well.

To get started, click into the cell containing the data that you want to merge across the other cells. Here, that’s cell B1. Then, with your cell still selected, click and drag to highlight cells C1 and D1. This tells Excel exactly where and how to merge your data.

Finally, on the Home tab on the ribbon, click Merge & Center. Watch as the three cells merge. You’ll notice that cell B1 expands to fill the space formerly occupied by C1 and D1. Plus, your text will jump into position in the center of the merged cell.

How to Merge and Center in Excel (Across Columns and Rows)

Excel also lets you merge and center vertically. Using the above example, imagine that you want the text centered across the range B1:D2.

Repeat the earlier steps of clicking on the data-containing cell, then select the surrounding cells that you want to center across. Click Merge & Center once again, and you’ll see cell B1 expand across all six of the highlighted cells.

Notice that the text centers, but appears at the bottom of the cell. This is the default alignment, but you can quickly change it. With the cell selected, click Middle Align on the Home tab. The text will jump to the middle of the cell, vertically and horizontally centered.

As you can see, it’s easy to merge and center inside Excel.