how do you merge cells in excel

To merge cells in Excel, follow these steps:

1. Select two or more adjacent cells you want to merge. Make sure the data you want to keep is in the upper-left cell, as merging will keep only that data and delete the rest from other cells

2. Go to the Home tab on the ribbon.
3. Click on Merge & Center in the Alignment group. If you want to merge without centering the content, click the dropdown arrow next to Merge & Center and choose either Merge Cells or Merge Across

Additional tips:

• If the Merge & Center button is disabled, ensure you are not editing a cell and that the selected cells are not part of an Excel table

• To unmerge cells, select the merged cell and click Merge & Center > Unmerge Cells or press Ctrl + Z immediately after merging to undo

There are also keyboard shortcuts:

• Select the cells, then press Alt + H + M + M to merge and center

• Alternatively, use the Format Cells dialog (Ctrl + 1), go to the Alignment tab, and check Merge cells to merge selected cells

Note: Merging cells keeps only the upper-left cell’s data; other data in merged cells will be lost unless copied elsewhere beforehand

. This method works for combining cells visually but does not concatenate text from multiple cells. For combining text data without losing content, use formulas like CONCATENATE or CONCAT instead