Not meaning to be facetious, but how about fixing it by unmerging the cells
and designing the worksheet without merged cells?
What you have described is just one of many problems caused by merging
cells, and you'll find that many people recommend not using merged cells
because of those kinds of issues.
It seems that most people merge cells on a row for one of two reasons:
They want a wider cell to contain longer text, or
They want to center text above the data in the columns below the merged cells.
You can achieve the same effect as either by not using the cells to the
right of the first cell that contains the text - it will simply extend out to
the right over the unused cells, or if you need it centered, then select the
cell with the text in it and the cells you would have merged and use Format |
Cells and choose the 'Center Across Selection' option under horizontal
alignment.
I hope this helps some.