Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Creating a Center Across Selection Button.
Excel includes a handy tool that you can use to merge cells and center whatever is within those merged cells. (This tool is available on the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Alignment group.) The problem with this tool is that it merges prior to centering, and you might not want any merged cells in your worksheet.
Fortunately, Excel includes the capability of centering information across a range of cells, without merging them. There is no native tool on any ribbon tab that can perform this task. You can, however, display the Alignment tab of the Format Cells dialog box and use the Horizontal drop-down list to choose Center Across Selection. Doing this frequently within a worksheet can be a pain, but you can create your own tool to center information across whatever cells you've selected:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
Sub CenterAcrossColumns()
With Selection
.HorizontalAlignment = xlCenterAcrossSelection
.MergeCells = False
End With
End Sub
Once you have the macro, you can assign it to a shortcut key or the Quick Access Toolbar.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12183) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Creating a Center Across Selection Button.
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2016-10-03 23:38:52
David Gray
@Willy Vanhaelen, thank you for calling attention to the mention of the built-in tool.
@John Mann, there are several ways to make this macro universal. By far the easiest, though least versatile, is to store it in PERSONAL.XLSB. The reason that I think of this as the least versatile is that it becomes part of your individual settings. Another, more versatile option, is to incorporate the macro into an add-in, which is nothing more than a macro-enabled workbook with all of its worksheets hidden. The advantage of an add-in is that it can be made available to all users on a machine, and can be distributed to other users.
2016-10-03 11:05:33
Kevin Miller
I like the Merge Across option but is there a way to have it combine all the text from all merged cells. If I select a range and choose the Merge Across it only keeps the value in the upper left cell and discards everything else. Sometimes I want to merge all the cells into a single cell with the combined content of all cells value in one long string. Thanks,
2016-10-03 09:08:15
John Mann
Does this macro have to reside on the individual workbook, or can it be made universal?
2016-10-03 08:44:51
I use this command all the time - thanks for this tip! Now to create a keyboard shortcut for it would be the next step.
2016-10-02 05:52:18
Willy Vanhaelen
@David Gray
The last sentence of the first paragraph says clearly that the button on the home tab merges prior to centering. I mostly don't want the cells to be merged so I use this macro already for years and find it very useful.
2016-10-02 00:38:22
David Gray
Using a macro to do this seems like overkill, since the default Home tab already has a button that does it for you.
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