How to split a single cell in Excel

You can watch a video tutorial here.

When formatting tables in Excel, you may need to merge cells to properly label the data and to make it look neater. When cells are merged in Excel, only the data in the top left cell is retained and the data in the other cells are lost. Having merged some cells, you may want to ‘unmerge’ the cells or split the merged cell. Only cells that have been merged can be split.

Option 1 – Split the cell into rows

Step 1 – Select the cell

• Select the cell that is to be split

Step 2 – Navigate to the merge button

• Go to Home > Alignment
• Expand the Merge & Center dropdown
• Select Unmerge

Step 3 – Copy the data

• Copy and paste the data from the first cell into the new rows

Option 2 – Split a cell into columns

Step 1 – Select the cell

• Select the cell that is to be split

Step 2 – Navigate to the merge button

• Go to Home > Alignment
• Expand the Merge & Center dropdown
• Select Unmerge

Step 3 – Check the result

• The cell is split into 2 columns