How to Merge Cells in Excel (Without Losing Data)

About this video

Kevin explains how to merge cells in Excel without losing data or breaking a spreadsheet. The basic method is to highlight cells such as A1 through E1, go to the Home tab’s Alignment group and click Merge and Center — but with multiple values, Excel warns it will only keep the upper-left value and discards the rest; in his example it keeps Kevin and discards Cookie Company, though Ctrl+Z undoes it. The Merge and Center dropdown also offers Merge Across, which merges each row individually, plain Merge Cells, which merges without centering, and Unmerge Cells. He then shows why merging is risky: trying to sort a table containing merged cells triggers an error because merged cells need to be the same size, and merging disrupts the consistent grid Excel relies on for sorting, filtering and reporting. The pro alternative for the centered look is Center Across Selection: type the text, select the cells, press Ctrl+1 to open Format Cells, and under the Alignment tab set horizontal alignment to Center Across Selection — the text appears centered but the cells stay separate, so sorting and filtering still work. If the real goal is combining values, he advises using formulas instead of merging: the ampersand operator with a quoted space between first and last name, the older CONCATENATE function, or the newer TEXTJOIN function where you specify a delimiter, handling of empty cells, and the cells to combine. Lastly, Flash Fill lets you type the desired combined result such as Kevin Stratvert and press Ctrl+E to fill the pattern down, with the downside that Flash Fill is not a live formula and will not update if the source data changes.

Key takeaways

• Merge and Center keeps only the upper-left value and discards the rest; Ctrl+Z can recover lost data
• Use Merge Across to merge each row individually, and Unmerge Cells or the toggle icon to reverse a merge
• Merged cells break sorting and filtering because Excel needs a consistent grid structure
• Center Across Selection (Format Cells via Ctrl+1) gives the merged look while keeping cells separate and sortable
• To combine values, use the ampersand operator, CONCATENATE, TEXTJOIN, or Flash Fill (Ctrl+E) — noting Flash Fill does not update live

Episode details: published February 25, 2026 · 7:41 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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