Note: You can only unmerge cells that you’ve merged. If you want to separate cells that you haven’t merged, check out our tutorial for splitting cells in Excel.
Use Undo or a Keyboard Shortcut
If you merge cells and immediately realize it was a mistake, you can reverse the action using the Undo feature or a keyboard shortcut in Excel. These options only work when merging cells was the last action you took. To use the Undo option, select the Undo button in the Quick Access Toolbar. If you’ve removed this button from the toolbar, you can also use Ctrl + Z on Windows or Command + Z on Mac to reverse the last action. To use a keyboard shortcut to unmerge cells, select the merged cell(s) and use the combination Alt + H + M + U. This method only works on Windows but quickly unmerges merged cells in Excel.
Use the Merge Menu in the Ribbon
Another simple way to unmerge cells in Excel is using the Merge feature in the ribbon. If this is the method you used to merge the cells initially, then it’s a sensible option. You should then see your cells unmerged as individual cells.
Use the Format Cells Feature
With the Format Cells feature, you can take care of your cells’ borders, alignment, font, and other formatting. You can also use it to merge and unmerge cells.
Use the Find Tool
If you have numerous merged cells in your sheet that you want to unmerge, you can use the Find tool to locate the cells and then unmerge them. The tool you need to locate merged cells is currently only available on Windows. Continue this process for all results where you want to unmerge the cells and select Close in the Find and Replace box when you finish. Now that you know how to unmerge cells in Excel using various methods, take a look at how to speed up data entry with Flash Fill in Excel.
