Merging cells without merging rows

Another way to create multiple rows of merged cells is to use Copy Style and Paste Style. The leftmost column of the merged cells can contain data but the other column(s) being merged need to be blank. And this assumes all the other styles that have been applied to the merged cells (borders, bold/italics/etc,, auto/text/etc) should be applied to all the other cells about to be merged.

1. Merge one set of cells. (Example being cells B2 and C2)
2. Select that merged cell and use Copy Style (in the Format menu).
3. Select all other cells to be merged (example being B3::C20 or any random selection of side-by-side cells)
4. Paste Style

Hi rdoust,

Do you want to create an empty (blank) table with merged cells?

Option down arrow is your friend.

Select these two cells

and Menu > Table > Merge Cells

Hold down the option key and press the down arrow on the keyboard, say 5 times.

Now select those rows with merged cells.

and do option down arrow again

Again, select, all rows with merged cells and repeat until you have the required number (480) of rows with merged cells.

Delete the unwanted (not merged) rows at the bottom of the table.

If the table already contains data, I do not know how to quickly merge two columns over 480 rows. Or perhaps Barry's answers (concatenate two columns) is what you are looking to do.

Regards,

Ian.

Merged cells in Numbers aren't a great idea. And it's not easy to script cell merges.

Are you simply trying to concatenate the values in two different columns?

For example you have "my" in B2 and "value" in column C2 and you want "my value" all in one cell?

If so you could insert a temporary column D. In D2 you would enter the formula:

=B2 & " " & C2

and fill down column D.

Then to "remove" the formulas you can do this:

With the cells in column D selected, command-c to copy, Edit > Paste Formula Results.

Then delete the original two columns.

SG

As you want to merge these adjacent cells in "all 480 rows in the document," you could 'merge' the content of each pair of cells into a third cell in a new column.

Then select the third column, Copy, and with the column still selected, go Edit > Paste formula Results.

With the merge (actually 'concatenate') formulas now replaced with their fixed results, you can delete the two original columns, leaving the 'merged' cells of the third column.

Either of these formulas will do the job, They assume the first row containing data is row 2, and the columns are column B an column C.

Select any cell in column C. Press option-right arrow to insert a new column D to the right of column C.

Enter either of the formulas below into D2, then fill down.

D2: =B2&" "&C2

OR

D2: =CONCATENATE(B2," ",C2)

Place whatever text you want to separate the contents of the two cells between the quotation marks. I've used a single space.

Easiest way to 'fill down: Enter and the formula. Confirm it and close the Formula editor by clicking the green checkmark.

With the cell still selected, press command-D to copy.

With the cell still selected. scroll to the last row of the table, Press and hold command then click on the last cell in column D to expand the selection to the whole collumn (except the Header row).

Release the command key, then press command-V to paste the formula into all cells of column D (except the unselected header cell).

Confirm that column D contains what you want.

Edit the header cell manually to contain the label you want.

Click the column reference tab for column B, then shift-click (or command-click) the reference tab for column C to add it to the selection.

Place the pointer near th right end of either of the selected reference tabs, and click the v that appears to open the contextual menu. Choose Delete selected columns to delete the original columns B and C.

Regards,

Barry