"Merging" cells is a great technique for consolidating your data within Google Sheets. With this technique, you will be able to collapse and consolidate entire rows and columns against each other to help you with your analysis.
Today, I will show you how to use this feature in a few easy steps as well as display some examples of this function.
Walkthrough
First, I will show you how everything works within this feature, followed by an explanation of all of the options that you have.
Let's kick this off with a walkthrough.
Step #1: Highlight The Cells
The first step is to highlight the area of your data that you wish to merge and consolidate. You could choose to highlight your whole data table or just a select area; whatever you need to do.
Step #2: Open "Merge Cells"
Next, you will access the "Merge Cells" tool through the "Format" menu located on the top bar of Google Sheets. You will have 3 options for merging:
- Merge All
- Merge Horizontally
- Merge Vertically
It is important that you understand how each of these features affect your table, as they each make a unique and drastic change to your data.
Understand How Each Option Works
It is very important to understand the difference between these three options for cell merging. Understanding the differences will give you the ability to flexibly organize and consolidate your data in Google Sheets in the ways that you need and want.
"Merge All"
This option replaces all of the highlighted cells with just the top-left cell.
"Merge Horizontally"
This option replaces all of the highlighted cells with the cells in the left-most column.
"Merge Vertically"
This option replaces all of the Highlighted cells with the top-most row.
Keep these differences in mind whenever you need to merge your cells.