Suppose I have a selection of N rows in M columns. I would like to be able to: 1. Merge all M cells in each row into one, to get N single-row cells spanning M columns each. 2. Merge all N cells in each column into one, to get M single-column cells spanning N rows each. The first action is useful for splicing columns one has previously imported, say, from a CSV file, or otherwise worked on independently.
You cannot merge non-contiguous selections. And some kind of batch processing like A1:A3 and C1:C3 resulting in two merged cells is hardly what users expect.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1) > You cannot merge non-contiguous selections. I don't want to merge non-contiguous selections... > And some kind of batch > processing like A1:A3 and C1:C3 resulting in two merged cells is hardly what > users expect. It's not what they expect with the current button. I want either a different (and related) command, or some sort of variant on this command. e.g. if the selected range is rectangular with width and height at least two, perhaps a menubutton with the three possible mergs: Rows, Columns, Everything. And in other selections the menubutton decays into a singlebutton. (Of course, that's just one implementation idea)
I still don't get the use case. An example might help.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #3) Suppose I've received a table of students and their exam grades. The table has a "First Name" column, a "Last Name" Column and a "Grade" column. Now, I want a single column of the full names. I could achieve that by selecting the first two columns and merging the pairs of cells on each row (with the "move contents into first cell" variant). Luckily, the merge separates by spaces, so I get a single column of full names.
The example is a batch procedure and I don't think we should complicate the merge function to allow this. A simple =A1 & " " & B1 would achieve the same.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #5) > A simple =A1 & " " & B1 would achieve the same. Well... I guess that's true. Ok, fine, benefit not sufficient to merit the UI complication.