[Spreadsheet] How to join cells

[Guest]

In M$ excel I can join some cells. How can I do for do this in spreadsheet???

Thanks and sorry for my poor English

[8daysaweek.co.uk]

Do you mean "Merge" cells?

If so select the cells you want to merge and select:
Format > Merge Cells > Define

HTH
_________________
James
www.8daysaweek.co.uk - A User-Focused OOo site

[bhomass]

when I open an Excel file in Calc, the merge cell button and menu item both become disabled. does some know why this happens?

Thanks

Bruce

[antonbijl]

Bruce

In order for merge cells to be used, you have to first select multiple adjacent cells (i.e. cells that can be merged). So select cells A1 and A2 for instance and the merge cell button/menu item should become available, but if only 1 cell is selected (e.g. A1) it will be disabled (because it is impossible to merge one cell). Likewise the split cells function will only be available if a merged cell is selected.

HTH

Anton

[esperantisto]

There is one little detail, that I've noticed to be different from MS Excel: if you have merged some cells and want to add more cells to the merged range, first, you'll have to unmerge the already merged and only then perform the merge operation over the new range (in Excel you just select the merged range, the new cells and do new merge).

[bhomass]

Thanks for these tips. but I already know what are stated, and they are not the problem I am looking at. there is one large Excel file which, when opened in Calc would have the merge cell button and menu item both disabled, no matter what cell range I select. when I open any other smaller Excel file, the button remains active even when there is only one cell selected. the sheet is not protected either. any one ever seen this before?

[antonbijl]

Bruce

How large is the file?

If it's smaller than 2MB (I think that's the yahoo max), you can e-mail it to me on antonbijl AT yahoo.co.uk and I can tell you if I get the same behaviour. If its bigger try zipping it, xls files tend to compress quite a lot.

I've certainly not seen this. And on my system when only one cell is selected the merge cells button is always disabled.

But if you can, send me the file and I'll have a look.

Cheers

Anton

[bhomass]

I appreciate the offer, but it is a client file that I can not release. Maybe I will get a chance to work another large file later which I could.

Bruce

[freiheit]

Other than the file's size, is there anything unusual about the file? Is it password protected or set read-only? I was just in an office where someone had an open MS Word file that they could not save to itself, but they could freely save it as a new file in the same directory. I guessed there was some form of copy protection or read-only attribute either on the file or within the file (perhaps a Word/Excel feature, I'm not sure since I don't use them).

Don Eitner

[bhomass]

I have checked all the possibilities that I am aware of. it is possible to protect a sheet in Excel, which would disable all of the tool buttons. but this is not the case I have. this particular file behaves fine in Excel. all tool buttons are active. it is only in OO that it disables the merge button. the more I work and program OO, the more parcularities I find. a features that ususally works could fail in a paritcular sheet. this merge problem remains a mystery.

[davida]

I found out how to get the cell merge feature working on an excel file. Go to
Edit->Changes->Record
and make sure the checkbox is off. Then you should be able to see the menu items in
Format-Merge Cells

Hope that helps.

-David