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Merge and Center button grayed out

Anonymous
2010-10-21T14:16:06+00:00

After selecting multiple cells to merge, the Merge and Center toolbar button is grayed out.  We tried clearning All Contents and it's still not available.  Why is it not available?

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-10-21T14:21:10+00:00

    Possible answers:

    You are currently editing a cell

    The worksheet is protected

    Possible solutions:

    Format the cells (shortuct Ctrl+1), go to alignment, check the merge cells box.

    Then select center horizontal alignment.

    Or, avoid merging cells (it can cause so many problems...) and use the "Center across selection" option for horizontal alignment.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-10-17T14:37:01+00:00

    This also happens when the cells you're trying to merge are part of a table.  To correct this, select the cells, go to the Design tab of the Table Tools ribbon (yellow) and click Convert to Range (within the Tools section).

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-24T12:25:07+00:00

    This problem also occurs if the spreadsheet is set up for shared access (on the Review tab).

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-09-04T08:00:19+00:00

    I had the same problem. To disable tracking of changes,

    Click on 'Track Changes' - an on the listed options, click on 'Highlight Changes'

    Uncheck the option 'Track changes while editing. This also shares your workbook.'

    That disabled tracking changes and the 'Merge & Center' and 'Protect Workbook' got enabled.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-09-19T15:27:12+00:00

    Also, when you have track changes turned on, you lose the ability to merge cells, and protect sheets.

    There may be setting to account for this but I haven't found any yet.

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