Merging cells

[Guest]

We have many excel spreadsheets that we use to track employees. My company
just recently transfered the info from Word to Excel. I am new to the
company and fairly new to Excel. We have decided to merge the name cells
from two to one (one cell-first name, one cell-last name). We want to do
this to help in our searches for people. I have no idea how to do this. I
am sure there has to be an easier way than retyping everyone name into one
cell. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Guest]

Assuming your first name is in cell A2, last name in cell B2, in cell B2,
type =A2&" "&B2
Copy formula all the way down.

Once done, highlight column C, copy, Right-click and paste special..., Values.

 

[Bernard Liengme]

If A1 had "Fred" and A2 has "Holland", then =A2 & ", " & A1 will give
"Holland, Fred"
best wishes

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

We have many excel spreadsheets that we use to track employees. My
company
just recently transfered the info from Word to Excel. I am new to the
company and fairly new to Excel. We have decided to merge the name cells
from two to one (one cell-first name, one cell-last name). We want to do
this to help in our searches for people. I have no idea how to do this.
I
am sure there has to be an easier way than retyping everyone name into one
cell. Any advice would be appreciated!

Firstly merging cells is a bad idea. One simple example. Having merged
cells to form one, say John Smith, how would you do a sort on surname? The
same comment goes for addresses where it is better to have separate fields
for <House number>, <Street name>, <Locality>, Town>, <County>, <Postcode>.
Indeed you would want separate data if you want to do a mail merge. It is
far easier concatenate (join) information than it is to separate afterwards.
Have a look at my information sheet at
www.1001solutions.co.uk/designing_a_spreadsheet.pdf

Oh! to answer your question (if you really must)
=A1&" "&B1

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Guest]

So, if you've gone and combined the cells, and now changed your mind,
highlight your column with first and last name in it:

Data > Text to Columns...

Delimited > Next

Select "Space" checkbox > Finish

Will split your names wherever a space exists...

 

[Guest]

Once I get my formula in, I deleted column "A" and "B." When I did that my
new column was messed up. What do I do now?

 

[Guest]

Did you do that last part... copy he newly created column and paste
special/values?

You should be able to go to Edit> Undo and click til you get back to the
values where you need them and do that last part.

Verify it worked by clicking in one of the new cells and looking in the
formula bar. Make sure the value is in there, not the formula.

 

[Guest]

I am really not Excel savy. My cells are actually C (first name) and D (last
name). When I try and put the formula in cell D2, it gives me error
messages. I hate to be a bother, but I really need to get this done as soon
as possible. Thanks for all your help!!

 

[Dave Thomas]

A word to the wise. Always make a backup copy of your workbook before making
massive changes. Click file on the menu at the top, then save as and enter
the name: (without quotes) "My Very Precious Life Saving Backup In Case I
Screw Up And Save On Top Of This Workbook This Before Realizing I Did Screw
Up". Then open the original workbook and make your changes. Actually you
can call the "save as" copy anything you want as long as it does not
conflict with a workbook that has the same name as you're trying to save it
with.

You cannot put the formula in D2 because the last name is in D2. You're
getting a circular reference because the formula refers to D2, in other
words the formula refers to itself. Even if you put the formula in D2, you
replace the last name with the formula. Put the formula in an empty column.
Column E? If the names start in row 2 put the formula in row 2 of some empty
column. The formula would be =C2&" "&D2. Copy the formula all the way down
to match the number of names. If you're satisfied with the results, you
could delete columns C & D. But if any formulas refer to columns C or D, you
will get #REF errors after doing so.

Many people just keep the first and last names in separate columns for ease
of use, such as sorting on last name. You can always combine a name with
=C2&" "&D2 at any time.