# Get rid of merged cells! Debate



## erik.van.geit (Aug 8, 2008)

"Get rid of merged cells!"
That's what most of the experts try to tell us.
Why? They are so beautiful!!

If anyone wants to do an effort to explain "pro" or "contra", feel free to start the debate.
I opened this thread to avoid debates in UNMERGE and CENTER ACROSS
That thread has some code to do the job quickly.

It was a pleasure to work this out for Mr Excel community 

kind regards,
Erik


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## riaz (Aug 8, 2008)

erik.van.geit said:


> If anyone wants to do an effort to explain "pro" or "contra", feel free to start the debate.



Bonjour Erik

Always pro.  In fact, were it not for this board, I might have become anti, but now that I have learned a few tricks with merged cells, I use this a lot in my work.  You can write lots and lots of lovely things in merged cells and make them look as you want.  That, coupled with row heights, gives you clean paragraphs if you want to write oodles of text.

(Why anyone would want to write text using Excel is another debate for another day!)

Cheers


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## Fazza (Aug 8, 2008)

No debate from me. Merged cells suck big time!! I bypass any forum posts that use merged cells and whenever I have to work with spreadsheets sent to me containing merged cells, they are deleted as the first modification to the file.


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## riaz (Aug 8, 2008)

No debate but a request for clarification.  Why?


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## MrKowz (Aug 8, 2008)

Merged Cells + Visual Basic is like trying to divide by zero.  When you try to do it, the world implodes on itself.


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## Fazza (Aug 8, 2008)

hi, Riaz.

Why no merged cells - because merged cells are a total pain in the spreadsheet.

My use of spreadsheets is for working with data. So data in tables. Merged cells cause problems with selecting columns (or rows if vertically merged), filtering, running pivot tables, queries, joining tables together. Just about any useful work operation with the data. For this sort of work, merged cells are really unworkable.

Merged cells might be OK for some uses but none that I do in my strongly data/numeric-focussed work.

Regards, F


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## riaz (Aug 8, 2008)

I agree with you, purely because on the odd occasion I have had to manipulate some sheets with merged cells, I had to unmerge, do the necessary, then merge them back, and it has been a pain in the neck.

Still, different strokes....  I would not be able to do some of what I do without merged cells.  I suppose it all boils down to usage.  That is not to say I use merged cells all the time, but one particular project requires this (we prepare financial statements for clients) where we need text and numbers.  I merge cells where there are no numbers in columnar form, leave them unmerged for the columns of numbers, then merge the next lot and so on ad infinitum ad nauseum.

Anyway, I blame this forum.  I learnt how to do this right here.


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## Richard Schollar (Aug 8, 2008)

I agree with Fazza - you can always use an alternative to merged cells.  Using them is just asking for trouble down the line.


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 8, 2008)

Merged cells are just wrong!

Using them because they solve a real problem - maybe, just about. (Although why not just use a text box?  ). But mostly when I see them, it's by people who are more concerned with formatting than being able to use the data - grrrr!


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## riaz (Aug 8, 2008)

cornflakegirl said:


> Merged cells are just wrong!
> 
> Using them because they solve a real problem - maybe, just about. (Although why not just use a text box?  ). But mostly when I see them, it's by people who are more concerned with formatting than being able to use the data - grrrr!



Just like you would probably not buy a new car if it was dirty, we need to polish the final output after all the data crunching has happened in the background.

(so far, it looks like 7 against, 1 for.  Help!)


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 8, 2008)

Yeah, I don't have a problem if they're used in a report after all the analysis is done.

But in a living document - nononononono!


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## riaz (Aug 8, 2008)

It might be an idea to see what our members do in the unreal world outside this forum, and what they use Excel for.  I'll kick off (as if I haven't made it obvious), I'm an accountant.


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## Richard Schollar (Aug 8, 2008)

Accountant's should only be allowed near Excel once per year - especially ones from Peterborough


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 8, 2008)




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## RoryA (Aug 8, 2008)

Emma,
Surely you're not going to let that misplaced apostrophe slide - I know it's Friday, but we must have standards!


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## riaz (Aug 8, 2008)

RichardSchollar said:


> Accountant's should only be allowed near Excel once per year - especially ones from Peterborough



Accountants' what, Richard?  

I agree, once a year is enough. Start the prog on 1 January and close it on 30 December.  Give us a day off to think of new ways to use Excel as a word processor.


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 8, 2008)

rorya said:


> Emma,
> Surely you're not going to let that misplaced apostrophe slide - I know it's Friday, but we must have standards!



Do you know how hard it was for me to resist commenting?!


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## Richard Schollar (Aug 8, 2008)

Eats, Shoots & Balls it up


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## RoryA (Aug 8, 2008)

I can resist anything except temptation!


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## MrKowz (Aug 8, 2008)

*gets the popcorn and watches this thread get hijacked*


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## Greg Truby (Aug 8, 2008)

I realize that to the regulars here, I'm sure this is a sign of the apocalypse – me actually re-tracking a thread back on course for however brief of a span…

The only times I have *ever* used merged cells in a workbook I was building have been to create an Excel version of US gov't forms or shipping label-type output. I was able to build forms that looked so much like the originals that the gov't officials we were collaborating with could not tell the difference between mine and the PDF version printed from the internet.

Having Excel versions made workflow better as I was able to use validation & VBA to boost productivity.  Aside from this type of application (needing a specific layout like forms or labels), I have never found merged cells' PITA overhead to outweigh any possible benefit. 

IMHO, if the worksheet is intended for actual number crunching, merged cells are just plain bad voodoo.

OK – Emma, Richard, there’s your cue: “voodoo”, what can you do with that?


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 8, 2008)

Did you know that voodoo doesn't actually involve sticking pins in dolls at all? Apparently it's Eastern European witchcraft that does that. Voodoo does use doll things for healing rituals though. According to QI, anyway.


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## RoryA (Aug 8, 2008)

I guess that answers the age old question:
"If voodoo practitioners don't stick pins in dolls, hoodoo?"


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## Lewiy (Aug 8, 2008)

Merged cells?  Well – I must admit that they can get in the way somewhat, however, for the purposes of displaying data on reports, etc. they can be quite useful.  Yes there are always alternatives but not necessarily satisfactory ones.  Let’s say I have a report spanning 10 columns and I want a heading in row 1 centred across the top.  If it were 9 columns, I could place my heading in column E and centre the text, but I have 10 columns……so what do I do?  I “merge-and-centre” cells A1:J1….job done.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o> </o>
On the other hand, they can be a real pain in the @rse.  Trying to manipulate worksheets with merged cells can be a nightmare.  Personally I’m fed up with paper clip guy pooping up and saying “You’re a complete %&$*£, you’ve used merged cells and I refuse to deal with them for you”.
<o> </o>
In conclusion: Merged cells have a time and place and that is for making things look pretty.  Other than that….avoid them like the plague


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 8, 2008)

Lewiy - CENTRE ACROSS SELECTION!

(I can't believe you are one of Them. I always thought you were a good guy...)


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## Greg Truby (Aug 8, 2008)

cornflakegirl said:


> Lewiy - CENTRE ACROSS SELECTION!


Im<SUP>1</SUP> actually curious. Excel under UK settings: does the tooltip show the American ("merge and center") or British ("merge and centre")? How about the fill & font buttons? Tooltips show "Fill Color" & "Font Color"? Or "Fill Colour" and "Font Colour"?



<HR>1. Please use the extraneous apostrophe in Richard's post here. That should balance the books grammar wise for Emma.


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## shades (Aug 8, 2008)

Although I have been away from the business use of Excel for several months, I remember vividly that merged cells were always a pain. When I taught classes on Excel, that was one of the first items on the forbidden list in a project.

Actually there were a few instances when I used merged cells sparingly. I would work with data on several worksheets, then have many setup worksheets, and then on the display worksheet that pulled data from the setup worksheets I would use an occasional merged cell... like once every year or two.


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## riaz (Aug 8, 2008)

rorya said:


> I guess that answers the age old question:
> "If voodoo practitioners don't stick pins in dolls, hoodoo?"



Youdoo?


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## RoryA (Aug 8, 2008)

Greg,
The tooltips are American.
Shouldn't your superscript 1 be _between_ the I and m?


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## riaz (Aug 8, 2008)

Greg Truby said:


> Im<SUP>1</SUP> actually curious. Excel under UK settings: does the tooltip show the American ("merge and center") or British ("merge and centre")? How about the fill & font buttons? Tooltips show "Fill Color" & "Font Color"? Or "Fill Colour" and "Font Colour"?
> [/SIZE]



American spellings in Europe too for both, you thread hijacker, you...


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## Greg Truby (Aug 8, 2008)

rorya said:


> ...Shouldn't your superscript 1 be _between_ the I and m?


Tried it that-a-way. But then it wasn't quite obvious enough (the superscripted one kind of looked like an apostrophe), so I opted for the end-of-word position. Perhaps Emma can give us a ruling on whether a footnote can even be placed mid-word?


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## riaz (Aug 8, 2008)

cornflakegirl said:


> Lewiy - CENTRE ACROSS SELECTION!
> 
> (I can't believe you are one of Them. I always thought you were a good guy...)



 Emma....

Are you saying I'm now a bad guy?  Yesterday you liked my pic.  Today you're sticking pins in me?


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## RoryA (Aug 8, 2008)

and an adjudication on whether 'grammar wise' [sic]:
a) is a word
b) needs a hyphen


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 8, 2008)

Hyphen. Again, I wasn't going to comment. I think Rory's after my podium spot 

Riaz - that was aimed at Lewiy, for unnecessary use of merge. I'd never be mean to you!


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## riaz (Aug 8, 2008)

cornflakegirl said:


> Riaz - that was aimed at Lewiy, for unnecessary use of merge. I'd never be mean to you!



 Yaaay!  Emma has approved of my use of merge 

Nice weekend all.  Off to Bxls tomorrow for the day, who knows, might bump into Erik?


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## Greg Truby (Aug 8, 2008)

rorya said:


> and an adjudication on whether 'grammar wise' [sic]:
> a) is a word
> b) needs a hyphen


 


cornflakegirl said:


> Hyphen...


 
Ya know, I mulled ’n’ I pondered a mite o’er dat dere dash ’n’ whether or not a feller oughtter drop one twixt them two words. But all that bother over a wee bit o’ punctuation jus’ made the Mark Twain fan in me start ta fuss and fidget like a five-year-old lad after twenty minutes on a pew, so I let it go.


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## erik.van.geit (Aug 8, 2008)

wow, walked away for some hours and so many replies 


riaz said:


> Off to Bxls tomorrow for the day, who knows, might bump into Erik?


Bxls, is that Bruxelles (French), Brussels (English I hope), Brussel (Dutch)
We could do an effort? Do you live close to Brussels?

About merged cells.
Those who want to get rid of them, please test the code
UNMERGE and CENTER ACROSS

Seems like we agree. I will try to summarise using some key words.
Merged cells
STATIC - DISPLAY - PRINT - OUTPUT: ok
DYNAMIC - CALCULATION - DATA MANIPULATION: nono

To Lewyi.



> they can be quite useful. Yes there are always alternatives but not necessarily satisfactory ones. Let’s say I have a report spanning 10 columns and I want a heading in row 1 centred across the top. If it were 9 columns, I could place my heading in column E and centre the text, but I have 10 columns……so what do I do? I “merge-and-centre” cells A1:J1….job done.


Seems like you didn't understand the "center across selection". If you want something centered in A1:J1, enter it in A1, then select A1:J1 and "center across selection". 10 columns and perfectly centered 

best regards,
Erik


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## dcofer (Aug 8, 2008)

Hello Erik,

Thanks for the discussion.  I had never heard of Center Across Selection before.  I always used Merge and Center, not realizing the problems it could cause until I read this thread.  I use the M&C to make the worksheet more appealing.

I was not for sure how to Center Across Selection, but I searched the internet and quickly found it.  (Probably should have searched this site first, but I didnt)  CAS is much better!  The look is the same to the naked eye, and it does not have the problems associated with M&C.  Now, I want to go change all my sheets with M&C to CAS.

The more I learn, the more I realize how really little I know.

---dave


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## erik.van.geit (Aug 8, 2008)

> Now, I want to go change all my sheets with M&C to CAS


Well, it's you who inspired me to enhance a code made some months ago. So now you can use it for all your sheets.


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## dcofer (Aug 8, 2008)

erik.van.geit said:


> Well, it's you who inspired me to enhance a code made some months ago. So now you can use it for all your sheets.



While I would love to take credit for inspiring you to enhance the code, I do not recall what post it was.  Most likely, your inspiration came from someone else.

---dave


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## erik.van.geit (Aug 8, 2008)

oops
It was another member 
sometimes too enthousiastic, but I prefer that instead of the opposite

ladies & gentlemen,
nevermind, go on with your nice discussions


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## Lewiy (Aug 11, 2008)

> To Lewyi.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
> Quote:<o></o>
> <TABLE class=MsoNormalTable style="WIDTH: 100%; mso-cellspacing: 0cm; mso-padding-alt: 4.5pt 4.5pt 4.5pt 4.5pt" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR style="mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes"><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #d4d0c8 1pt inset; PADDING-RIGHT: 4.5pt; BORDER-TOP: #d4d0c8 1pt inset; PADDING-LEFT: 4.5pt; BACKGROUND: #e6e6e6; PADDING-BOTTOM: 4.5pt; BORDER-LEFT: #d4d0c8 1pt inset; PADDING-TOP: 4.5pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d4d0c8 1pt inset; mso-border-alt: inset windowtext .75pt">they can be quite useful. Yes there are always alternatives but not necessarily satisfactory ones. Let’s say I have a report spanning 10 columns and I want a heading in row 1 centred across the top. If it were 9 columns, I could place my heading in column E and centre the text, but I have 10 columns……so what do I do? I “merge-and-centre” cells A1:J1….job done. <o></o>
> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
> ...


<o></o>
<o> </o>
Blimey, looks like I’ve taken quite a grilling over the weekend!!!<o></o>
<o> </o>
Ok, let me clarify…firstly, I am aware of “centre across selection”, however, I urge you all to place some text in E1, then highlight A1:J1, format>cells>alignment>centre across selection…………then change the fill colour of D1 to yellow………oh look, now I have a silly yellow cell in the middle of my heading instead of a nice big yellow-filled cell across 10 columns.<o></o>
<o> </o>
I realise that, yes, there are solutions to this too (but silly ones if you ask me)….and if you read the rest of my post you’ll see that I don’t really condone the use of merged cells in general…..but they have a time and place as long as you don’t plan to ever change them….reporting only <o></o>
<o> </o>
Oh and Emma:<o></o>



> <o></o>





> (I can't believe you are one of Them. I always thought you were a good guy...)<o></o>


<o></o>
Two spaces after a full stop…….goshhhhhhh!


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 11, 2008)

Is it really that tricky to put the fill colour in A1:J1?

(Are you recommending two spaces after a full stop?)


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## Domski (Aug 11, 2008)

A bit late on this one...

Originally I never got the problem with merged cells but over the last last 12 months or so when I've been using VBA more I have hit various problems and whilst I'm sure there are ways and means around them I reckon it's almost always easier to set the worksheet up differently using merge and centre or just not bother at all.


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## dcofer (Aug 11, 2008)

Lewiy said:


> <o> </o>
> however, I urge you all to place some text in E1, then highlight A1:J1, format>cells>alignment>centre across selection…………then change the fill colour of D1 to yellow………oh look, now I have a silly yellow cell in the middle of my heading instead of a nice big yellow-filled cell across 10 columns.<o></o>



Why would you only want to color D1 to yellow?  Use fill color on the entire heading, A1:J1.  Then it "appears" that it was merged and centered, but actually it is only centered across the selection.  The appearance is the same.

--dave


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## Lewiy (Aug 11, 2008)

> (Are you recommending two spaces after a full stop?)<?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o></o>


Yes!
<o></o>


> Why would you only want to color D1 to yellow? Use fill color on the entire heading, A1:J1. Then it "appears" that it was merged and centered, but actually it is only centered across the selection. The appearance is the same.<o></o>


<o></o>


Lewiy said:


> I realise that, yes, there are solutions to this too<o></o>


<o></o>
<o></o>
I think I’m gonna stop digging now before I lose my spade. But I maintain that there are uses for merging cells in terms of layout…..whether these uses are mimic-able or not. How many other functions/features of Excel have alternatives? Loads!


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 11, 2008)

So, you tell me to use two spaces after a full stop, but then don't do it... 

(Where does whole thing come from anyway? It looks crap!)


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## RoryA (Aug 11, 2008)

As with most things, I think it all depends. Sometimes I find merged cells useful for the same reason I find them annoying at other times. For example, if you try and quickly select a row/column containing merged cells using Shift+Space (or Ctrl+Space), you end up including the merged rows/columns. Sometimes this is handy, other times it's incredibly irritating. The only firm(ish) rule I have is that anything I'm going to code will not have merged cells in it.


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## Domski (Aug 11, 2008)

> (Where does whole thing come from anyway? It looks crap!)<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->


 
I think it's how typists were taught RSA style years ago. My mum was a secretary type way back and when I asked her to type me a letter when I was a kid she got an old typewriter out and told me to do it myself. When I showed her it I remember her saying that there should be two spaces after a full stop and one after a comma.

Dom


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## Joe4 (Aug 11, 2008)

_Quote from rorya_


> I can resist anything except temptation!


Rory,
You wouldn't happen to be a Rush fan, would you?
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rush/resist_20119945.html

BTW, regarding the original issue in the thread, I am "Center Across Selection" kind of guy.  I do a ton of VBA, and I have never come across an instance in which "Center Across Selection" didn't do what we hoped to accomplish with merging cells.


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## dcofer (Aug 11, 2008)

I am old school on this, I suppose.  I use two spaces after a period.  Probably an old habit from days pounding out term papers on the old typewriter.

Now with computers and word processing programs, one space after a period is hardly noticible.

But, old habits die hard.  I will continue to use two spaces after a period.

---dave


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## yytsunamiyy (Aug 11, 2008)

Just my two cent's worth - I tend to avoid merging cells. The only time there is any reason at all for merging them is when you prepare the final report after all the number crunching has been done and you want a pretty layout - even then you better be **** sure that you arent going to have to re-arrange your reporting format at some point.

I know I'm kinda late to weigh in, but I had the 2 cents to spare...


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## RoryA (Aug 11, 2008)

Joe4 said:


> _Quote from rorya_
> 
> Rory,
> You wouldn't happen to be a Rush fan, would you?
> http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rush/resist_20119945.html


 Joe,
No (I hate them), but I shared a room at school with a guy who was a Rush fanatic, so it may have seeped into my consciousness over time!


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 11, 2008)

_Quote from rorya_


> I can resist everything except temptation.



Isn't that an Oscar Wilde quote?

(I thought the "I have nothing to declare except my genius" one would have been more appropriate for Rory  )


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## Lewiy (Aug 11, 2008)

From Wiki! (for those who are interested)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>



> <o></o>





> Historically, typesetting in all European languages has a long tradition of using spaces of varying widths for the express purpose of enhancing readability. American, English, French, and other European typesetters' style guides—also known as _printers' rules_—specified spacing rules which were all essentially identical from the 18th century onwards.<o></o>
> The single-width space is a relatively recent invention, dating from the invention of the typewriter, which carried over into computer keyboards and subsequent electronic font definitions.<o></o>
> 
> Following the widespread adoption of the typewriter, _French spacing_ and _English spacing_ were terms describing French-language typists' and English-language typists' differing standardized typewriter approximations with single-width spaces of traditional typesetters' spacing rules:<o></o>
> ...


 
So I guess it's about readability (and Emma, I never said I was infalable!!)


<o></o>
More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_spacing


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 11, 2008)

Or even infallible 

Thank you for the Wiki though - I didn't know it was a printing thing.


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## RoryA (Aug 11, 2008)

Well, if we're going to quote Mr. Wilde...


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 11, 2008)

I haven't heard that one before, Rory. I love it!


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## Lewiy (Aug 11, 2008)

cornflakegirl said:


> Or even infallible


 
Good, you proved my point...thanks!!


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## cornflakegirl (Aug 11, 2008)

I wasn't sure if you were being ironic or not... but I couldn't have Rory pick me up on another overlooked error


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## Joe4 (Aug 11, 2008)

> Joe,
> No (I hate them), but I shared a room at school with a guy who was a Rush fanatic, so it may have seeped into my consciousness over time!


Well, I almost liked you Rory! 
Sounds like you roommate was a pretty cool guy, though...


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## RoryA (Aug 11, 2008)

We shared a taste for Whitesnake, Metallica, Twisted Sister and Slayer, but I just didn't get Rush, I'm afraid!


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## Joe4 (Aug 11, 2008)

Its kind of funny.  I had a few roommates in college that turned me off/on to music also.  

My first roommate had a "shrine" to the Doors, but played the same 3 CDs over and over again.  As such, I really can't stand the Doors.

My second roommate introduced me to Rush (I had never listened to them before then).  I now own almost every album and have seen them in concert about 7 times (they are great in concert - it is amazing that it is only 3 guys making that music live).

BTW, Whitesnake is my favorite 80s hair-band (and I am not afraid to admit it!).


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## RoryA (Aug 11, 2008)

I _love_ the Doors - have all their albums plus various bootlegs etc. For 80's hair, you can't beat a Flock of Seagulls though. (early Bon Jovi is quite impressive to be fair, as is Poison).


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## cgmojoco (Aug 14, 2008)

There is another reason to use merged cells that may be quite obvious but sofar left unsaid:
*MY BOSS LIKES THEM*

Yes, this has made programming a nightmare (I've learned way more than I would have liked on how to get around merged cells).

Although, interestingly, now that I know a bit more how to navigate around them, I've found that I prefer them whenever distibuting files that I am requesting someone put notes into....(i.e. to summarize groups of rows of data...)

if there was a way to center across selection vertically, that would be interesting...

I've tried workarounds, I find the merged cells are the only option to get the wrapping and grouping of vertical data that I need...

Surprise, in one instance, I actually found it EASIER to script against merged cells rather than center across.


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## Lewiy (Aug 15, 2008)

Here’s another “benefit”…..merged cells allow you to have more visible characters in the cell.  Why anyone would ever be using Excel for something that requires 1024 characters in on place is beyond me and never something I’ve done myself, but rather than tell these people to stop being stupid and use Word, I just tell them to merge two cells together, thus allowing them to view everything they have typed in.


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## Legacy 96851 (Aug 15, 2008)

Lewiy said:


> Here’s another “benefit”…..merged cells allow you to have more visible characters in the cell. Why anyone would ever be using Excel for something that requires 1024 characters in on place is beyond me and never something I’ve done myself, but rather than tell these people to stop being stupid and use Word, I just tell them to merge two cells together, thus allowing them to view everything they have typed in.


 
Ha, that was actually an issue I had a few weeks ago, where I had a bunch of cells with paragraphs in them (it made a little bit of sense in Excel vs. Word, because the text was broken up a bit and was pertinent to the rest of the sheets, which were graphs/charts).

But merge cells have their own issue there which was driving me insane: they have some restriction (maybe based on the widths of the component cells?) as to the amount of words allowed on the last line of text- if there aren't a certain number of characters on that line, the text just gets cut off. With about 10 cells arranged vertically, finding "just the right length" so none had this problem was quite a pain.

p.s. Rush is the greatest band in history


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## Lewiy (Aug 15, 2008)

Actually, I’m quite curious about this sort of thing because “officially” only 1024 characters will display in a cell, but if you use the following formula:
=REPT("A",1024)&REPT("B",50)&REPT("C",50)&REPT("D",50)&REPT("E",50)&REPT("F",50)&REPT("G",50)&REPT("H",50)&REPT("I",50)
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o> </o>
You can clearly see that there are more than 1024 characters displayed in the cell.
<o> </o>
In fact if you wrap text and increase the column width to the maximum 255, you can see 1421 characters which is way more than the quoted limit.
<o> </o>
Even copy and pasting values so that the characters are physically present in the cell makes no difference!!


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## Greg Truby (Aug 15, 2008)

Realize this thread has cooled off somewhat.  Been a busy week and just haven't had time to mention this until today...

The board software automatically removes two (or more) spaces.  Even if Emma or Lewiy _wanted_ to put two spaces after a period (or "full stop" if you insist), the board will trim it to one.  Both the red and blue below have the exact same spacing.  The red is posted normally.  The blue uses the HTML 
	
	
	
	
	
	



```
<pre> and </pre>
```
 tags to preserve spacing.

<b>spacing   test</b>
    1 and 1
   2  and  2
  3   and   3
 4    and    4
5     and     5
<pre><b>spacing   test</b>
    1 and 1
   2  and  2
  3   and   3
 4    and    4
5     and     5</pre>


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## Lewiy (Aug 15, 2008)

So basically, the board prevents us from using the correct spacing after a full stop......I'm gonna have to make a formal complaint. These language/typing rules exist to help us understand each other dammit


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## Greg Truby (Aug 15, 2008)

Well, if'n yer that commited to the double space after a period then you can always use the 
	
	
	
	
	
	



```
«ampersand»nbsp;
```
 bit.

0 1  2   3    4     ....

You'd probably want to write your posts up in MS Word first and use autocorrect or something to make the process less onerous.


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## Lewiy (Aug 15, 2008)

Bah!  I think I'll just take my chances and type in this lovely box here.


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## Greg Truby (Aug 15, 2008)

OK, so yer dedication to your homeland's system (yer the chap that said 'twas called _"*English* spacing"_) goes by the boards when it becomes a litte bit <SUP>{in a "Jon Lovitz voice"}</SUP>_inconveeenient_?  _[shakes head and sighs]_...fair-weather grammarians...


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## Lewiy (Aug 15, 2008)

Well quite, I like my grammar, but first and foremost I’m lazy.  If it’s gonna take out a space here and there then I guess I’ll just have to live with it.  The worst thing is that I’m still applying my double spacing whilst typing this, even though I know it won’t make any difference!!  Old habits die hard……


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## Expiry (Aug 19, 2008)

I use merged cells, although I agree they cn be a pain, they are definitely much neater and polished (to use a previous anology) than using a text box.

It does all come down to personal preference and it really depends what you're using Excel for.

To answer another question of why anyone would write oodles of text in Excel - one simple answer Word is a flicking nightmare!


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## Gerald Higgins (Aug 27, 2008)

Expiry, why did you shoplift your signature from Sainsburys ?
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/home.htm


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## Expiry (Aug 27, 2008)

Gerald Higgins said:


> Expiry, why did you shoplift your signature from Sainsburys ?
> http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/home.htm



Four reasons 

1. That's who I work for and I'm a loyal, company focussed kind of guy.

2. I thought it was apt, seeing as we should all try something new today, with Excel.

3. I shoplift everything from Sainsbury's

4. I was trying to think of a new signature and I panicked.

P.S. I'm never sure if there should be a 'K' in panicked or not. It feels right, but it sure doesn't look right.


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## Gerald Higgins (Aug 27, 2008)

I've never thought about it before, but there's definitely a resemblance . . . 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2008/apr/07/fastandlooseforafiver


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## Lewiy (Aug 28, 2008)

> P.S. I'm never sure if there should be a 'K' in panicked or not. It feels right, but it sure doesn't look right.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>



<o> </o>
Yes, there is a ‘K’ in panicked.  I agree, it looks a little strange, but looks even weirder without!!!


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## Expiry (Aug 28, 2008)

Lewiy said:


> <o> </o>
> Yes, there is a ‘K’ in panicked.  I agree, it looks a little strange, but looks even weirder without!!!



I'll tell you something stranger - Fridge is an abbreviation of Refrigerator and yet there's an extra D in it. What's that all about?


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## Lewiy (Aug 28, 2008)

Expiry said:


> I'll tell you something stranger - Fridge is an abbreviation of Refrigerator and yet there's an extra D in it. What's that all about?


 
Probably because “frige” looks stupid and “frig” means something else entirely!! 
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o> </o>
And realistically, because you need the d to make the “j” sound in the word I guess, “frige” would be pronounced “fry-g” (magic “E”!!).


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## riaz (Aug 28, 2008)

Like bough, cough, dough, enough ....

'Nuff said?


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