Sorting Merged Cells (Excel 97)

Topic

New Reply

I am trying to sort a spreadsheet that has merged cells. All the cells down a column have the same format, but when I try to do a sort Excel tells that sort can’t be done because merged cells must have identical format. Any thoughts?

Reply | Quote

Replies

Thomas,

Merged Cells in Excel 97 are a pain for the very reason you found – you can’t do much with them but look at them!

You need to change the cells from “Merged” to “Centre across Selection”, which looks like Merged but can be processed.

First select the merged Column or range of cells, assuming that all rows of the column are identically merged, and then go to Format / Cells / Alignment. You should find that there is a tick against Merge Cells – turn it off. Then below Horizontal, under Text Alignment, select the option “Center across Selection”, and then OK and your problems should be solved.

If you are unable to do them all together, change one set of cells and then use F4 on similar cells to reapply the last change. This is much quicker that having to perform the change on every set of merged cells. You would then have to repeat the process to change the format to Center across Selection.

Good Luck!

Reply | Quote