Article ID: 211710 - Last Review: October 8, 2003 - Revision: 3.1

XL2000: Cells in a Protected Worksheet May Become Unmerged

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This article was previously published under Q211710

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel, if you cut and paste or drag a range of cells from one worksheet to another worksheet, you may receive the following error message:

The cell or chart you are trying to change is protected and therefore read-only.

To modify a protected cell or chart, first remove protection using the Unprotect Sheet command (Tools menu, Protection submenu). You may be prompted for a password.

When you click OK, merged cells in the destination worksheet may become unmerged. If you click the Edit menu, you cannot undo the operation.

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CAUSE

This problem occurs if the following conditions are true:

You cut and paste or drag a range of cells from one worksheet to another worksheet.

-and-
The destination worksheet is protected.

-and-
The destination range of cells includes one or more merged cells that are locked.

Note that this problem does not occur if you copy and paste a range of cells from one workbook to another.

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WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use either of the following methods.

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Method 1

Manually merge the unmerged cells. To do this, select the cells and either click Merge and Center on the Formatting toolbar or click to select the Merge cells check box on the Alignment tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

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Method 2

Close the destination workbook without saving it, and then reopen the workbook.

WARNING: Use this method with caution because you may lose other changes to the workbook.

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