How to merge cells in Google Sheets for clearer data

Merging cells in Google Sheets is a simple feature that improves the presentation and clarity of your data. By combining cells, you can create clean headers or group related information, making your spreadsheet easier to understand. In this post, we’ll explore the different ways to merge cells and how to apply this to your data effectively.

How to merge cells

Let’s look at an example where merging cells will create clearer headers in a table of data.

1. Start by selecting the cells you want to merge—for example, the income-related columns in your table.

2. Click on the merge icon (two arrows facing each other) in the toolbar. This combines the selected cells into one.

3. Enhance your header by centring the text, adding a border, and applying a fill colour for better visibility.

Repeat the process for other headers like Costs to give your table a polished and organised appearance.

How to merge vertically or horizontally

By default it will merge all the cells you’ve selected into one, but sometimes you want to specify either merging just horizontally or vertically.

Below the table of data I have a list of countries in cell B11 which are too long for the size of the cell, so I’m going to merge B11 with the cells up to B14.

1. Select the cells then open the merge menu by clicking the triangle next to the merge icon and choose Merge vertically. This combines the rows in each column.

2. Add your text. To keep the entries on separate lines in the same cell, type the text and press Ctrl+Enter after each entry.

Similarly, Merge horizontally allows you to combine multiple columns into a single cell for horizontal data alignment.

How to unmerge cells

If you need to adjust a merge, simply select the merged cell and click Unmerge in the merge menu. You can then redo the merge with a different range if required.

Remember, the reference for a merged cell is always the top-left cell of the range. For example, merging A1 to C3 will reference A1.

Check out this video for a deeper look at merging cells:

Learn more about Google Sheets here.