XL97: No "Center Across Columns" Toolbar Button

In Microsoft Excel 97, no "Center Across Columns" button appears on the Formatting toolbar. In its place, a "Merge and Center" toolbar button appears.

Although the "Center Across Columns" toolbar button is no longer available, you can still center text across columns without merging cells. To do this, use the following steps:

1. Select the range of cells over which you want to center text.
2. On the Format menu, click Cells.
3. Click the Alignment tab.
4. In the Horizontal list box, click "Center Across Selection."
5. Click OK.

This is by design of Microsoft Excel 97.

The "Merge and Center" toolbar button in Microsoft Excel 97 provides a level of functionality that is very similar to the functionality provided by the "Center Across Columns" toolbar button in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel. Basically, the button allows you to center information contained in a single cell across a range of cells.

Note that there are some minor differences in behavior between the two buttons. The following examples illustrate these differences.

Examples

Assume that you have a new worksheet in Microsoft Excel that contains the following information: In Microsoft Excel version 5.0 or 7.0, if you select the range A1:E1 and click the "Center Across Columns" toolbar button, the word "test" appears centered across the range A1:E1, and the gridlines between the cells disappear. However, the range still consists of five individual cells.

In Microsoft Excel 97, if you select the range A1:E1 and click the "Merge and Center" toolbar button, the range A1:E1 is merged into a single cell. The word "test" appears centered within this cell.

In Microsoft Excel version 5.0 or 7.0, if you select the range A1:E2 and click the "Center Across Columns" toolbar button, the word "test" appears centered across the range A1:E1, and the word "hello" appears centered across the range A2:E2. The gridlines between cells in these two smaller ranges disappears. The range still consists of ten individual cells.

In Microsoft Excel 97, if you select the range A1:E2 and click the "Merge and Center" toolbar button, the entire range A1:E2 is merged into a single cell. The word "test" appears centered within this cell. In addition, because merging cells removes the contents of all cells within the range except for the upper leftmost cell, you will receive the following message: Clicking OK results in the deletion of the word "hello," and the merging of the cells. Clicking Cancel cancels the merge and center process.

If the other cells in the range must retain their own contents, or if you need to center multiple rows of information, use the workaround shown above to format the cells with the "Center Across Selection" alignment.

For more information about merging cells, click the Index tab in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text and then double-click the selected text to go to the appropriate help topic.