trying to sort data but get error messagesaying"the operation requires merged cells to be the same s

C

chicaboo

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

I've looked at the document and as far as i can see there aren't any merged cells. The text is entered into individual cells. What do i do?
 
B

Bob Greenblatt

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

I've looked at the document and as far as i can see there aren't any merged
cells. The text is entered into individual cells. What do i do?
Well, there are merged cells! Select all cells (using the diamond at the
intersection of the row and column headers) then go to
format-cells-alignment and click the merge cells check box.
 
G

Garyr

I am having the same problem and am very frustrated. Tried the above fix and basically merges the whole worksheet into one cell. Please help.
 
B

Bob Greenblatt

I am having the same problem and am very frustrated. Tried the above fix and
basically merges the whole worksheet into one cell. Please help.
I don't know what "the above fix" is, but it sounds like you did not follow
the directions. You are getting the message because you do have merged cells
in the worksheet. (Yet another reason to NEVER use merged cells.) to unmerge
the cells, click the diamond at the intersection of the row and column
headings. Then in the format menu choose cells alignment, and click merge
twice to unmerge the cells.
 
J

Joanna Bull

I am getting the same error message, but I merged cells on purpose and want to keep them that way. I could sort data like this in windows excel - is there a way to do this in the mac version??
Thanks
 
J

JE McGimpsey

Joanna Bull said:
I am getting the same error message, but I merged cells on purpose and want
to keep them that way. I could sort data like this in windows excel - is
there a way to do this in the mac version??

MacXL and WinXL behave the same with regard to sorting ranges with
merged cells...
 
J

jo

Regardless, my point was I have never encountered this problem before. Does anyone know how to fix it? I am trying to combine tables created by various people, so I can't control whether or not they have included merged cells in the past. The fix described above erases all the data except that in the top left cell.
 
J

JE McGimpsey

Regardless, my point was I have never encountered this problem before. Does
anyone know how to fix it? I am trying to combine tables created by various
people, so I can't control whether or not they have included merged cells in
the past. The fix described above erases all the data except that in the top
left cell.

I'm confused, are you the previous poster who wrote "I merged cells on
purpose"?

The thread you responded to doesn't have any fixes (at least, not as far
back as the headers have references), so I'm not sure which fix you're
referring to.

If the cells are already merged, the only data that exists is in the top
left cell of the merge, so you won't lose data by unmerging. Only if you
merge previously unmerged cells will you potentially lose data.

One potential solution, if your data is all constants (rather than
formulae, is to save the worksheet as a .csv file. When you read it back
into XL, the merges will be gone (along with all other formatting), and
the data will be in the left-most cell of the previously merged cells.
 

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