How to merge cells in Google Sheets

In this post, we’re going to look how to merge cells, which combine cells multiple cells into one cell. This allows you to format the cell and can simplify your data and make it easier to read and understand. It’s often used for headers in tables or where you have long text which goes across cells.

How to merge cells horizontally

Below we have a table showing the top 5 positions in the Premier League and I want to improve the look of it a bit first by centring the title in the first row.

First, select the cells you want to merge. Here, I’ve selected cells A1 to E1.

Then click the Merge cells icon on the toolbar.

This then combines all the cells into one cell. Note, if there is text in the cells, it will only keep the text in the top-left cell.

I also want it centred, so I just click on the alignment icon and select centred.

As you can see it’s now centred the text on the table, which I think looks much better.

How to merge cells vertically

The above example merged cells across different columns, but you can also merge cells across different rows. As before, select the cells you want to merge. For example, here I want to show that the top 4 teams will play in the Champion’s League next year, so I select A3 to A6.

This time click on the triangle next to the merge icon and select “Merge vertically”.

When you merge cells vertically, if there is text in the cells, the only text that will be kept is in the top-left cell. As this means you might lose some information, if you have text in any of the other cells, a warning will appear, checking you want to do it. Just click “OK”.

As you can see it’s merged the cells. As the original vertical alignment was to the bottom of the cell, it’s put the text at the bottom of the cell.

I want it to be at the top of the cell, so click the vertical alignment icon and click the top alignment icon (on the left).

I now have the table looking the way I want it, which I think is better.

How to split cells (unmerge)

If you want to split cells, select the merged cell and click on the little triangle next to the merge icon and select “Unmerge”.

Here, I unmerged the cell we merged above and as you can see it’s split the cell back into the 4 cells that were there. Note, you will lose some of the formatting, such as the borders, but you can readd those.

You can also merge multiple rows and columns.

Merging cells makes data easier to read.

Learn more about Google Sheets here and see quick Sheets tips on my YouTube channel here.