Excel Shortcut for Merge and Center

Shortcut for Merge and Center in Excel

In the excel worksheet, Merging the cells is not the user-friendly option to navigate, but we still use it to fit in the reported alignment. Many of the users often ask in the blog that what is the shortcut key to merge & center cells in excel. Unfortunately, there aren’t any default shortcut keys for this technique but no need to despair because we will use other shortcut keys to merge & center cells in excel. However, there are circumstances where we need to merge cells to make the report look neat and aligned properly. In this article, we will show you how to merge and make them center aligned using shortcut keys in excel.

How to Use Shortcuts for Merge & Center?

Below are the examples of excel shortcuts for merge and center.

You can download this Shortcut for Merge and Center Excel Template here – Shortcut for Merge and Center Excel Template

#1 – Manual Method

For example, look at the below data table.

We have a category-wise & month-wise summary. In the first row, we have category names “Sales” & “Cost” but each category is not neatly aligned. Since category belongs to both “Sales” & “Cost” we need to make this as a single header for these by merging the cells.

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Before we merge we need to first select the value cell for cells we need to merge for, in this case, we need to merge the “Furniture” category to B1 & C1 cell, so select B1 & C1 cells.

Now under the HOME tab, we have an option called “Merge & Center” so click on this.

This will instantly merge the selected cell and make the alignment as “Center”.

As you can see now “Merge & Center” option is highlighted which means the active cell is applied with a merge option. Similarly, we have the other two categories to merge, so repeat the same action for the other two as well.

Once the “Merge & Center” formatting applied for the first category cell for the other two we need not use the “Merge & Center” formatting option again rather we can simply use the F4 function key.

After merging first category cells next select second category cells.

Now simply press the F4 key to repeat the previous action of “Merge & Center”.

Do the same thing for one more category as well.

#2 – Using Shortcut Key (ALT + H + M + C)

Manual methods are just to start the things off but after a while, you must start using excel shortcut keys to work efficiently. There is no default shortcut key to “Merge & Center” but let’s discover the once now.

Press the ALT key to highlight the short cut alphabets for each ribbon.

Since the “Merge & Center” option is available under the HOME tab press “H” to go inside the “HOME” tab.

Now it has highlighted the shortcut key for all the tools under the home tab. For “Merge & Center” we can see the option as “M”, so press the “M” key.

Upon pressing the “M” key it has opened up other options of “Merge & Center”. From these lists, we need to select the option of “Merge & Center” so shortcut key is “C”.
Shortcut key to merge & center:

Other Option of Merge

As you can see above we have four different options under “Merge & Center”, let’s see what those options are.

Merge & Center: This will merge the selected cells into one and make the alignment of the text in the cell as the center. Shortcut is “ALT + H + M + C”.
Merge Across: This will merge the selected cells into one and make the alignment of the text in the cell as right. Shortcut is “ALT + H + M + A”.
Merge Cells: This will only merge the selected cells into one. Shortcut is “ALT + H + M + M”.
Unmerge Cells: This will do the reversal of above all, this will unmerge all the merged cells. Shortcut is “ALT + H + M + U”.

Case Study of Merge & Center

Let’s look at this case study of Merge & Center.

“Q1” is for the first three months, Q2 is for the second three months and so on. Assume we need to merge Q1 to the first three cells, Q2 to next three cells and so on, doing these four times will not take more time, but there are instances where we need to do it 100 times, in those cases, this technique is very important.

First, merge three cells.

Now double click on “Format Painter” by selecting the merged cell.

Now keep pressing the down arrow key until the cell you reach the merging of cells, in this case, we need to press down arrow three times to apply the same formatting to other quarters as well.

So all the cells merged with the same alignment.

Like this in the case of cells with equal merging options, we can use this technique.

Things to Remember here

In the case of merging multiple times of the same cell length, we can use format painter to avoid unnecessary steps.
In case merging cells have values in it then it will ask your permission before merging.