5 Easy Steps to Unmerge Cells in Microsoft Excel

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A quick guide to moving the values from a merged cell back into individual cells in Excel
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Do you want to unmerge cells in Microsoft Excel? When merging cells, data from adjacent cells combine into a single cell. When you unmerge cells, the data is retained in the top-left cell while the cells split. You can easily unmerge cells by selecting your merged cells and selecting "Unmerge Cells" in the "Merge & Center" drop-down menu. This wikiHow will show you how to change a merged cell back into two or more standard cells in Microsoft Excel using your Windows or Mac computer.

Things You Should Know

  • You can only unmerge a cell that has been previously merged.
  • Select all the cells you want to unmerge. Go to Home , then click the drop-down menu next to Merge & Center .
  • Click Unmerge Cells in the drop-down menu to unmerge the cells.

Steps

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  1. You can use an existing project or create a new spreadsheet .
  2. To select an entire spreadsheet, click the A1 cell, hold down the Shift key, and then click the bottom value in the last column. This will select all of your data. [1]
    • You can also hold Shift (Windows) or Command (Mac) and click individual cells to add them to the selection.
    • Merged cells take up two or more columns' worth of space. For example, merging a cell range in the A and B columns would leave you with a cell that spans the A and B columns.
      • You can only unmerge a cell that has been previously merged.
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  3. It's at the top of the Excel window. Doing so opens the Home toolbar.
    • If you're already on the Home tab, you can skip this step.
  4. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Merge & Center button in the "Alignment" section of the toolbar. This will prompt a drop-down menu to appear. [2]
  5. It's in the drop-down menu. Your cells will be unmerged, and the cells' value will be added to the left-most cell.
    • For example, if your merged cell had the word "Hello" in it, unmerging the cells would place the word "Hello" in the left-most unmerged cell.
    • If you want to merge cells again, select the cells you want to merge. Click Merge & Center in the Home tab. You can also click the arrow to select Merge Across or Merge Cells .
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      • If you use Excel in a language which reads from right to left, the unmerged value will always go to the right-most cell.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/select-data-for-a-chart-5fca57b7-8c52-4e09-979a-631085113862
      2. ↑ https://support.office.com/en-us/article/merge-and-unmerge-cells-5cbd15d5-9375-4540-907f-c673a93fcedf

      About This Article

      Article Summary X

      1. Click once a merged cell in your Excel document.
      2. Click the Home tab.
      3. Click the triangle to the right of the Merge & Center button.
      4. Click Unmerge Cells .

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