vanity: I need an EXCELL guru to explain how to do something

self | 07/12/2012 | RaceBannon

[RaceBannon]

Question: I am making a spreadsheet, and have merged some cells together. I am trying to avoid having to copy the data from one merged group of cells to the next page

I know how to assign one cell's data to another single cell, but how do I assign a merged group of cells to another same sized group of cells?

[RaceBannon]

the merged group of cells is b5 to b8

[ShadowAce]

[ShadowAce]

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Merge or concatenate?

[mike_9958]

Try looking under HELP and search “concatenate” - this is what I found:

Merge cells
When you merge two or more adjacent cells, the cells become one merged cell, and the contents of the upper-left cell are displayed in the center of the merged cell, as shown in the following example.

Text spread and centered over multiple cells
Important Only the data in the upper-left cell of a range (range: Two or more cells on a sheet. The cells in a range can be adjacent or nonadjacent.) of selected cells will remain in the merged cell. Data in other cells of the selected range will be deleted.

1.If the data that you want to display in the merged cell is not in the upper-left cell, do the following:
1.Select the data that you want to display in the merged cell, and then click Copy on the Standard toolbar.
2.Select the upper-left cell of the range of adjacent cells that you want to merge, and then click Paste on the Standard toolbar.
2.Select the cells that you want to merge.
Note The cells that you select must be adjacent.

3.On the Formatting toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you can use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, point to Toolbars on the View menu. If you don’t see the button you want, click the arrows at the right end of the toolbar.), click Merge and Center .
The cells will be merged in a row or column, and the cell contents will be centered in the merged cell.

Note If the Merge and Center button is unavailable, the selected cell may be in editing mode. To cancel editing mode, press ENTER.

4.To change the text alignment in the merged cell, select the cell, and then click Align Left or Align Right on the Formatting toolbar.

[arasina]

I think this should work:

Copy (Ctrl C) b5 and paste (Ctrl V) it to the cell where you want it to begin.

If necessary, use format painter (yellow brush icon) to copy the merged cell format of b5-b8 to the new cell sequence.

[ken in texas]

Are B5 to B8 also merged in the second worksheet? Do you want to avoid copy/paste because you want to update the first value and automatically propogate it to another location? If so, why not enter a formula in the second page and reference the source cell?

[RaceBannon]

I have tried referencing a single cell, but it doesn’t show the date in the merged cells, but I am going to try it again as a single cell reference

[RaceBannon]

folks, I got it!

I merged b5 through b8

I wanted those cells on all following cells to have the same data

by referencing b5 in each follow on merged cell group, I got what is in b5 through b8 to paste fine

so b42-b45 is good, so is b80 to b83, etc

thanks for the help!!

So, the freeper a few posts above, who told me to reference the top left cell as my reference cell and to call that cell in my equation
=b5
that worked great :)

[RaceBannon]

that did ti! :)

calling b5 as the referring cell did it

=b5

[RaceBannon]

that did it! :)

calling b5 as the referring cell did it

=b5

[Graewoulf]

Please put me on y’all’s Tech Ping. Thanks.

[ShadowAce]

You’ve been added! Welcome aboard!

[Graewoulf]

Thanks! Always glad to learn new stuff, and (sadly) re-learn what I have forgotten.

[Texas Fossil]

If you frequently use advanced functions in Excel may I suggest ASAP utilities as an addition.

It is free for personal use, bit of reminder nagware to update. But a great addition.

If you want some really powerful tools you might consider using Gnumeric spreadsheet. It is the only spreadsheet that I am aware of that provides the use of RegEx tools within the cells. I absolutely love that spreadsheet. The RegEx functions are not that well documented, but very powerful. There are both Linux and Windows versions. And it directly creates some great HTML tables from the spreadsheet data. It has one of the most powerful data import tools I have ever used. It also imports and exports Excel spreadsheets. It is GPL and totally free for any use.

[cicero2k]

A little OT since I’m late to the game.

I just started using the 2010 version and found that there is one thing I could do in 2007/2003 that I can’t do in 2010. It centers around the GEOMEAN function. Limited in 2010, much more so than in 2007/2003. Just a heads up.