Merge and Center Not Available

This is not helpful. This is a very minute sample size of what it could possibly be, compared to the vast majority of the time it probably being something outside of these two "issues" listed.

CORRECTION:
I mistyped at the begining of my previous comment. What I actually use - and added to the QAT is "Centre Across Selection" which is available on the ribbon in Excel 2010, but somewhat buried. I NEVER use the obvious tool of "Merge and Centre Accross selection - that's a real trouble-maker.

I use the "Merge and Centre across Selection" tool often enough that I've added it to my QAT. I couldn't find the command any where in the very long list of "All Commands" so I recorded a short macro which is kept in my personal workbook and run it from a button on the QAT.

I've never been able to imagine any situation where I would want to merge cells in a spreadsheet - no matter how far fetched the scenario. When I DuckDuck (rather than Google) the question "why would I merge cells in Excel" I get lots of results on why not, and NONE on why I might do it.

No prob's Zvi. That's the beauty and ugliness of Excel - there are more tools & features than you can ever learn or know about!

I'm from the same era: Learned 123 in 1984/85 from a 5.25" floppy tutorial, & Multiplan, then progressed thru Symphony, Supercalc, back to 123, and then Excel 4 & 5 in 1995 - and have never looked back!

Here's my tip to new & old learners. When you get a spare 10-20 minutes (e.g. lunch hour):
1. open the Customize Quick Access Toolbar window and just scroll through the list of commands available (Note: some are only available thru customisation as they are not on the inbuilt menu!) and see what each tool does and whether it may be useful to you. If so, add it to your QAT and try it out.
2. Similarly, open the Function Wizard window and check out the functions available (made easier bc you can do so by category). You can't add these to any favourites list but you can make your own "Check these out" list

Knowledge is power - if you don't know what's available you can miss an opportunity or spend hours trying to jury-rig a solution by cobbling together other functions.

Thanks Col Delane.
I have been an Excel user close to forever (I still remember Lotus 123 and Symphony) and never heard of the Center Across Selection option.
It really is MUCH better than Merge and Center.

Second what Col Delane said!!!

The consensus among almost all advanced users of Excel is that the Merge & Center tool should be removed from the application as it causes far too many problems and there are better ways to achieve the desired format (e.g. Center Across Selection)
https://accessanalytic.com.au/stop-merging-cells/

I'd encourage you NOT to use M&C.

Also you could need to convert table to a range by selecting the table, and then on the design tab, in the tools group, click Convert to Range. That was the problem with my table. Hope that helps!

You can also click on "Tables' on the tool bar and then on the far right click on "Convert to Range" That's what worked for me.

I have MS Excel 2013 and the align options have always been available. Suddenly, they are grayed out on ALL my excel files, past and newly created. None are shared, none are tracked. I've tried every fix I can find and repeatedly these are the main 'fixes' recommended. But none of these apply.

Any other recommendations?

Sincerely - Ashley

Convert to range worked for me since I had the Format as Table active.

Convert to range. It is most likely that you have formatted your sheet as a table which activates the design lay out. Go into design layout, in 2010, go to the tools bar in top left corner, and convert to range....all done

You also cannot merge cells in a table.

Spreadsheet not protected and not shared, but still can't merge cells (option permanently greyed out)