Unmerge Cells in Excel

Merged cells are often found in Excel spreadsheets. But what happens if you want to unmerge cells? Let’s learn how to unmerge cells in Excel.

How to Unmerge a Cell in Excel

Imagine that you have a spreadsheet with a merged cell inside. But perhaps you want the cell unmerged. In other words, you want to transform the single merged cell into multiple unmerged cells.

Begin by clicking on the merged cell. In this example, as you can see, it spans across columns A, B, and C.

Make sure you’re working on the Home tab on Excel’s ribbon. The command you want is Merge & Center, in the Alignment group. As you might know, this is the command used to merge cells. It basically works as a toggle switch: click it to merge cells, then click it again to unmerge.

In this case, you’ll notice that Merge & Center is highlighted in gray. Click on it, and your cell will unmerge.

How to Unmerge Multiple Cells in Excel

What if you want to unmerge multiple cells in Excel? There are two quick ways to do this. One option is to click and drag to select all the merged cells, then click Merge & Center. All will unmerge simultaneously.

If the merged cells aren’t together, you can select them by holding down Control/Command on your keyboard. Then, click into each cell and then click Merge & Center.

Your last option is to unmerge a single cell. Then, with the cell selected, click Format Painter on the ribbon.

With that complete, drag over your remaining merged cells. They will mirror the formatting of the unmerged cell, meaning they too will unmerge.

As you can see, Excel offers a variety of ways to unmerge cells. This is useful for your own spreadsheets, or those sent to you by others. It gives you more control over your worksheet’s layout.