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Centering Across Columns

Summary: Excel allows the headings of a workbook to be centered across several columns. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and Excel 2003.)

Excel has a nifty feature that allows you to format your headings to look better on the printed page. You can center the contents of a cell so that it is spread across several columns. For instance, if the body of your worksheet is six columns wide, you can center your headings across all six columns. Applying this type of formatting is very easy:

  1. In the left-most cell of the range in which you want the text centered, enter the text.
  2. Select the range of cells across which you want the text centered.
  3. Click on the Center Across Columns tool on the toolbar.

If you later enter anything in one of the other cells in the range you specified in step X, the centering is effectively canceled. This is because Excel recognizes that centering is impossible to do when there is something "blocking" the way. To recenter, you need to remove the offending cell.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (1942) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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