merging cells in an unshared protected sheet

[James]

I have an Excel 2000 workbook and need to know how to merge cells in a
protected sheet. According some of the threads that were left by other users,
this problem was corrected when they eliminated sharing of the workbook. My
document however is not being shared and I still have this problem.

 

[John C]

Most users recommend highly against merged cell, but I digress. (sometimes,
it just can't be helped).

In order to merge cells, you have to unprotect the sheet, then re-protect
after merging cells.

 

[James]

Other than merging, what other options do I have?

 

[Gord Dibben]

Depends upon your layout.

What does your data layout look like that leads you to want merged cells?

Center Across Selection may be an option.

Using more cells(you have plenty of those on a sheet) may be an option.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[James]

The layout is a simple letter size fill-in the blanks form with no macros and
some cell validations. I have tried inserting a text box but I cannot adjust
the paragraph spacing.

 

[Gord Dibben]

You'll have to explain why you would need merged cells for a fill-in the
blanks form.

Have you tried wrap text and autofit?

How much text are you attempting to enter in a cell?

Excel will allow 32767 chars per cell but will display only 1024 of those in
the cell.

Merging several cells will not increase that limit............you still have
one cell.

Try an Alt + Enter every 100 chars to increase the display limit.


Gord

 

[James]

There is a section of this form (24 merged rows) that the writer will need to
type in comments. If the sheet is protected and the sentence is too long, the
writer cannot merge one row to another.