Merging Cells
In Excel 97, you can merge the data in one cell with other cells to form a big cell that is easier to work with. Merging cells is especially handy when creating a decorative title for the top of your worksheet (see Figure 13.2 for an example). Within a single merged cell, you can quickly change the font, point size, color and border style of your title. (See Lessons 17, 18, and 19 to learn more about formatting cells.)
To create a title with merged cells, follow these steps:
Type your title in the upper-left cell of the range you want to use for your heading. If you have a multi-line title, like the one in Figure 13.2, press Alt+Enter to insert each new line.
Figure 13.2. Merge cells to form a single cell.
Select the range in which you want to place your title.
Click the Alignment tab.
Click Merge Cells. You may also want to make adjustments to the text within the merged cells. For example, you may want to select Center in the Vertical drop-down list to center the text vertically within the cell.
Click OK when you're done. The selected cells are merged into a single cell, which you can format as needed.
You can merge selected cells and center the data in the left-most cell by clicking the Merge and Center button on the Formatting toolbar.