What is the keyboard shortcut for Merge Cells in an Excel table?

As the Answer in that thread stated, there is no built-in keyboard shortcut for that purpose. However, you cannot assign custom keyboard shortcuts in Excel 2016. The other replies in that conversation apparently were from users of Excel for Windows... what they suggested merely was a roundabout way of getting into the command in the Ribbon.

If you don't mind some personal advice :-) most experienced users of Excel recommend avoiding the use of merged cells altogether. Doing so can create all sorts of limitations, problems & even workbook corruption. If you're looking to center a title across a range of columns you're far better off to use the Center Across Selection feature found in the Format> Cells> Alignment dialog in the Horizontal alignment dropdown menu. That method maintains the structural integrity of the worksheet.

My reply was to the January 21 question tacked on to the original posting by hollyneilson. Why the Community moderator retained the reference to Word in the Subject I have no idea, but this conversation has been in the Mac Excel forum since the day it was posted.

Please reread that message & you'll see that the question expressly refers to Excel 2016. That's why it was split from the original thread & illustrates just a few reasons why "me too" messages should not be interjected as a Reply into another user's conversation. These Communities are not intended to serve as 'chat rooms'.

Additionally, my "comment" was not that merged cells are not useful... What I wrote is that merged cells are problematic in worksheets, and once again it was in reference to Excel. Word tables are not constructed or used in the same way, nor are they subject to the same issues.

Further, it seems that you do not realize that this a Community for Mac Office, but your references appear to pertain to the Windows versions... And as for Palm, where are they now?

Bob, that's not a helpful answer at all. The question was about a Word table, but your answer is about Excel.

Your comment about merged cells not being useful is irrelevant. If we need to merge cells, then we need to merge cells, and Word provides a way to do it. What's more, there is a shortcut key that opens the Split Cells dialog box. In Word versions before 2007, it was a single keystroke. Starting with 2007, that keystroke still works, but it is not shown anywhere in the interface.

Every so often, my fingers remember where it is, and I press it. But most of the time, I have to use four key presses to bring it up (Alt-release, J, L, P). Or (a) move my hand from the keyboard to the mouse, then (b) do 1 or 2 mouse clicks to display the Table Layout options, then (c) click Split cells, then (d) move my hand back to the keyboard.

I never owned a Palm Pilot, but friends of mine did. Supposedly, at the height of its popularity there was a person on every project team at Palm whose job it was to count the stylus inputs required to accomplish every task. Their objective was to everything with just four presses.

I sure wish Microsoft had put someone in charge of this task during the development of the Office Suite since 2006.

Hi

The question asked by HollyNielsen was split off from the original question asked in 2012  about Microsoft Word because Holly said, "excel specifically."

Although Word was in the question (an artifact from the original question), HollyNeilsen's question was about Excel. Just now I modified the question and changed it to reflect her intent to ask about Excel instead of Word in order to avoid future confusion about the topic.

In order to avoid even more confusion, I won't split off Steven's question about Microsoft Word, mainly because I have no idea which version of Word Steven has. Steven, if you would be kind enough to start an entirely new question or questions about Microsoft Word, that would be appreciated. I think it highly unlikely that today you would be using any version of Word that existed in 2012. Be sure to include the version number you are inquiring or commenting about. If you are using Word on a Mac, go to the Word menu and choose About Word to find the version number.