Video: How to merge cells and preserve original values in Google Sheets
See how you can quickly combine the cells with all their data in Google Sheets. Join text in columns, rows, and ranges with simple and flexible settings that our free add-on offers.
Once you get Merge Values in Google Sheets add-ons store, you can run it from the Add-ons menu. This video is a quick overview of the ways you can concatenate data with the help of this tool.
Combine columns, rows, and ranges of data in Google Sheets: video transcript
When you need to join data in your spreadsheet, there are generally two ways you can go: formulas for bringing values together, and the Merge tool for combining cells. This add-on lets you quickly do both without losing any data. Let's see how it works. Once you start the tool, there are three simple settings to choose:
- First decide in what direction you want to join the selected records. Say, here I want to combine names within each row, so I'll pick the option "In each selected row".
- Then pick the delimiter for the values. A simple space will be good here, but you can enter any combination of characters in this field. You can also leave it blank in case you want to attach values from the cells without any separators.
- Then choose where to place the results. When joining values in rows, you can put them into the left or to the right cell in the selected range. However, there is also an additional option that lets you add a new column with the results to the left or to the right of your data respectively.
There are a few other options that make the process flexible:
- You can keep or delete the source values from the selected columns after you get the concatenated value
- Combine the cells together with all the data and avoid that standard warning
- Skip blanks in your range together with extra delimiters
- Wrap text in the resulting cells, this can be especially useful if you select a line break as a delimiter
- And create a backup copy of your sheet if necessary
Click Merge and get the results right away.
Join text in multiple columns
If you would like to merge values within columns instead, for example, this table requires joining the order details together, we will change the first setting to merge values in each selected column. I will also change the delimiter to a line break, place the results at the top, insert the row above, and wrap text. Click Merge and get the values in one cell.
Combine cells of data
Let me also show you how you can quickly merge an entire range of cells together and preserve all your records: first, we combine the values into one cell, separate them with a semicolon and a line break, and merge all selected cells into one.
Click Merge and get all your data in one cell that you can unmerge using the standard option in Google Sheets.
Please note that you can get the latest version of this add-on with Power Tools as well. Feel free to post your questions in our community or email us right from the add-on. We'll do our best to help you.
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