Section 10.4. Merging and Splitting Cells

10.4. Merging and Splitting Cells

The cells in your table don't have to be a perfect grid, so don't be afraid to get creative with your table layouts. Maybe you want to have a single "1st Quarter" heading centered over three columns of sales figures. To merge cells, select two or more adjacent cells, and then use Table Tools Layout Merge Merge Cells or the shortcut Alt+JL, M.

Table 10-3.

Command	Ribbon Command	Keyboard Shortcut
Merge cells	Table Tools Layout Merge Merge Cells	Alt+JL, M
Split cells	Table Tools Layout Merge Split Cells	Alt+JL, P
Split table	Table Tools Layout Merge Split Table	Alt+JL, Q

To split cells, make sure the insertion point is in the cell you want to divide, and then use either the command Table Tools Layout Merge Split Cells or the shortcut Alt+JL, P. A dialog box appears, asking you to specify exactly how you want to divvy up the real estate (Figure 10-7).

Figure 10-7. The Split Cells dialog box lets you be quite specific about how you want to divide the territory. Enter the number of columns and rows you want in the text boxes. If you select more than one cell before you give the Split Cell command, you have the option to merge the cells before you break them into smaller parts .