How Were the Cells Merged in the First Place?
There are a few different ways to merge cells in Excel. The most common method is to select the cells you want to merge and then click the “Merge & Center” button on the Home tab of the ribbon. You can also right-click on a selection of cells and choose “Merge Cells” from the context menu.
This is good to know if you accidentally unmerge the wrong cells. Now, let’s move on to our tutorial: how to unmerge cells in Excel manually and with keyboard shortcuts?
How to Unmerge Cells in Excel Manually
The easiest way to unmerge cells in Excel is to use the “Unmerge Cells” button after selecting the desired cells. The button will appear in the drop-down menu when you click “Merge & Center.” You can find this option on the Home tab, in the “Alignment” group, under “Wrap Text.”
If you do it this way, you’ll need to select all the merged cells that you want to unmerge. This can be a bit time-consuming if there are many cells or if they’re spread out across the worksheet. We’ll show you how to speed up this process at the end of the article.
How to Merge and Unmerge Cells With Keyboard Shortcuts
Now you know how to unmerge cells in Excel manually. But are there any keyboard shortcuts you can use to make it even faster? As it turns out, there are a few shortcuts for merging and unmerging cells in Excel. Here you go:
- Merging cells without centering: Alt+H, M, M.
- Merging and centering: Alt+H, M, C.
- Unmerging selected cells: Alt+H, M, U.
- Unmerging cells immediately after merging them: Ctrl+Z.
These shortcuts only work on Windows. Apple devices don’t have the Alt key, so you’ll need to set up your own shortcuts instead.
You can create a shortcut for unmerging cells by clicking “Tools” under the navigation bar in Excel and selecting “Customize Keyboard.” A pop-up will appear where you’ll need to select “Home Tab” in the Categories column and “Unmerge” or “Split Cells” in the Commands column. Then, you can specify your desired shortcut, e.g., Cmd+U.
How to Fill the Blank Cells With the Original Value
After learning how to unmerge cells in Excel, you may want to quickly fill in the blank cells that are left behind. This can be done by using the “Find & Select” option under “Editing” on the Home tab. From the drop-down menu that appears, choose “Go To Special.” Choose “Blanks” from the many options and click “OK.”
All the blank cells will now be selected, and your cursor will be in one of them. Type the = sign and press the Up arrow key (if the blank cells are under the original values) or the Right arrow key (if the blanks are next to the original values). Press Ctrl+Enter, and the resulting formula will apply to all the selected cells, filling them in with the original values.
Unfortunately, this quick method doesn’t work if there is no pattern in the data. For example, if the merged cells were shaped differently across the worksheet, you’ll need to fill in the blank cells manually to avoid pulling the wrong data from adjacent cells.
How to Find All Merged Cells in a Worksheet
If your worksheet has a lot of merged cells, it might be easier to use the Find and Replace function to unmerge them all at once. To do this, highlight the entire spreadsheet by clicking Ctrl+A or the empty space in the top left corner. Then, follow these steps:
- Go to the Home tab.
- Click “Find & Select.”
- Choose “Find” from the menu that appears.
- Click on the Options button in the bottom right corner.
- You can now click “Format” next to “Find what.”
- Go to the Alignment tab and check the box next to “Merge cells” at the bottom. Click “OK.”
- After returning to the Find and Replace window, click “Find All.”
You’ll see a list of merged cells appear in the bottom left corner. Click a result to go to that cell. Then, click the “Unmerge” button on the Home tab or press Alt+H, M, U. Repeat for all the cells on the list.
You can also select all the cells by holding down Ctrl and clicking on each one individually. Then, you can unmerge them all at once by clicking “Unmerge” or pressing Alt+H, M, U. It’s the easiest way to unmerge all cells in Excel if there are lots of them in different places.
Splitting Merged Cells in Excel Is Easy!
If you want to get really fancy, you can use macros to unmerge cells in Microsoft Excel. But the methods we’ve gone over should be more than enough for most users. So next time you come across merged cells or get an error message that they’re present, don’t panic! Just follow these steps, and you’ll have them unmerged in no time.
Did we miss anything about how to unmerge cells in Excel? Let us know in the comments below!
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