How to find merged cells in Microsoft Excel

Have you ever tried to sort data in Excel only to get an error about merged cells? Trying to find all these merged cells manually can be a daunting task. Fortunately, there is an easy way to find them.

Find Merged Cells in Excel on Windows

Microsoft Excel for Windows offers a search tool with advanced options. This allows you to find cells with specific formatting.

Note. Excel on Mac does not currently have this robust search tool. These instructions currently only apply to Windows. On a Mac, you will need to unmerge all of your cells ( as described below ).

Go to the sheet where you want to find the merged cells and go to the Home tab. Select the Find and Select drop-down arrow and select Find.

Find "Find and Select" from the drop-down menu.

When the Find and Replace window opens, click Options in the bottom right corner.

Options button in the Find and Replace window

After you see these additional options, you will also see a Format button to the right of the Find field. Select the drop-down arrow for this Format button and select Format.

In the Find Format box, go to the Alignment tab and check the Merge Cells box. Click OK.

The Merge Cells checkbox is checked in the Find Format window.

This will take you back to the Find and Replace window. You can leave the Find What field blank. Then, make sure Sheet is selected in the Within box. The rest of the parameters can be left as is.

The sheet selected in the "Within" box to find and replace

Select “Find All” to see all merged worksheet cells in the expanded part of the window.

Merged cells in search and replace results

You can click on one of the results to go directly to it on the sheet to unmerge a cell using the Merge and Center drop-down menu on the Home tab.

Merge Cells on Mac

As mentioned, the Find tool in Excel on Mac doesn’t offer a Format option like it does on Windows. But if you get an error about merging cells while trying to sort data, you can simply unmerge all the cells in the worksheet.

This is not ideal and may cause problems with the appearance or functionality of these merged cells. However, it’s still an option if you’re interested.

Select the entire sheet using the triangle button at the top left where column A and row 1 meet. Then go to the Home tab, click the Merge and Center dropdown arrow, and select Unmerge Cells.

Unmerge cells in the Merge & Center menu on Mac

When you have a spreadsheet that contains a lot of data, finding cells that you’ve merged over time can be tedious. With the Find tool in Excel for Windows, you can quickly find the cells you need.