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Ask anyone who's had to deal with the evils of merged cells in Excel and they'll agree that the Center Across Selection option is by far the better choice.

The text appears centred but you retain the ability to select and reference each cell independently.
Which begs the question: why is it such a pain to do?! Traditionally, you could only centre across the selection from the Format Cells dialog box.

On the Alignment tab, use the Horizontal drop list to centre across the selected cells.
If, like me, this has annoyed you for years, you'll be pleased to hear that the September 2026 Excel update makes it much easier to apply this wonderful formatting option. From the ribbon, choose Home | Merge & Center | Center Across Selection.

Why did it take so long to add this option to the menu?
For an even quicker way to do this, press the following keyboard shortcut sequence (one key at a time): Alt, H, M, S.
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