Show All

Merge cells into one cell in a table

You can combine two or more cells in the same row or column into a single cell. For example, you can merge several cells horizontally to create a table heading that spans several columns.

1. Select the cells you want to merge.

   How?

   Some parts of a table can only be seen if you display all formatting marks by clicking Show/Hide on the Standard toolbar.

   To select:

   A cell

   Click the left edge of the cell.

   

   A row

   Click to the left of the row.

   

   A column

   Click the column's top gridline or border.

   

   Multiple cells, rows, or columns

   Drag across the cell, row, or column.

   Or select multiple items that are not necessarily in order. Click the first cell, row, or column you want, press CTRL, and then click the next cells, rows, or columns you want.

   Text in the next cell

   Press TAB.

   Text in the previous cell

   Press SHIFT+TAB

   The entire table

   In print layout view, click the table move handle , or drag over the entire table.

   Note  You can also select rows, columns, or the entire table by clicking in the table and then using the Select commands on the Table menu, or by using keyboard shortcuts.

2. On the Table menu, click Merge Cells .

Note  When you merge several cells in a column to create a vertically oriented table heading that spans several rows, click Change Text Direction on the Tables and Borders toolbar to change the orientation of the heading text. If you change the direction of text and save the document as a Web page, the text will not appear changed when the page is viewed in the browser.