Centering Across Columns

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 21, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 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 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Entering Regular Text in the Equation Editor

The Equation Editor is a great tool for designing and displaying all sorts of equations in a document. It is not very ...

Discover More

Handling Leading Zeros in CSV Files

When dealing with files containing comma-separated values, you want to make sure that what gets imported into Excel ...

Discover More

Setting Cell Width and Height Using the Keyboard

Hate to take your hands off the keyboard? Here are a couple of ways you can reject the mouse and still adjust the height ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! This guide will provide you with all the information you need to automate any task in Excel and save time and effort. Learn how to extend Excel's functionality with VBA to create solutions not possible with the standard features. Includes latest information for Excel 2024 and Microsoft 365. Check out Mastering Excel VBA Programming today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Unhiding a Single Column

In a worksheet with lots of hidden columns it is a real pain to try to unhide just one or two columns. The best solution ...

Discover More

Hiding Columns Not within a Date Range

Want to automatically hide some columns that don't meet a date criteria that you set? You can't do it automatically, but ...

Discover More

Understanding Column Widths

Ever wonder why column widths are expressed in characters? The answer is rooted in history, as discussed in this tip.

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five minus 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.