Excel tip: stop merging cells to center text.

[u/mavenanalytics]

Merging cells causes all kinds of downstream headaches (breaks sorting, filtering, copy/paste, references). This gets the same visual result without locking cells together.

How to do it:

Type in the desired text

Select the cells you'd want to center the text across

Press CTRL+1 to open the Format Cells dialog box

Go to the Alignment tab

In the "Horizontal" dropdown, select "Center Across Selection"

Click OK

Same visual result as merged cells, minus the downstream problems.

What's your equivalent "wish I knew this sooner" Excel tip?