PROBLEM: We often have tables (not always defined as a formal table range) that include horizontally merged cells within a row. On occasion, we need to delete a block of cells from the center of the table where the merged rows span over the cells being deleted. This operation cannot be performed because we cannot specifically select the block of cells we want to delete.

GLITCH: When a block selection includes horizontally merged cells, the selection is forced to expand to included the full width of any merged cells included in the range. This, in turn, forces a widened selection that includes cells in the selection, to the left and right, that we do not want to edit or delete.

RAMIFICATIONS: We cannot physically select the desired block of cells, therefore, we cannot edit or delete the desired cells. This is an insane frustration, evidenced by the may questions on the internet regarding this behavior. Ironically, the user can properly delete complete rows or columns that intersect a range of merged cells

SOLUTION: When a range selection is made treat all cells within a merged range as individual cells so the user can select single rows or columns that extend through the merged cell. This would suffice in most cases, but obviously could become complicated when the user changes the width of columns for rows outside the merged group because the merged cells widths then may not match the width of surrounding cells. This is a problem for another day, since the width of merged cells should also change similar to the surrounding cells when included in the selection, but they do not. On this count, there should also be a feature that allows the user to subdivide a merge cell into individual cells that match the width (or height) of the surrounding cells when surrounding cells are edited.

The current options for including a block of multi-line text in a sheet are either typing into a region of merged cells or using a floating textbox object. Both forms have substantial usability issues. For example, entering text into a region of merged cells requires hitting Alt-Enter to insert line breaks meaning two key strokes which is in contrast to the universal accepted way of pressing Enter. Furthermore, this option does not support rich styling such as bullets or any of the text alignments in the Ribbon home tab. On the other hand, a floating textbox object, while providing a rich editing experience lacks what I consider to be “seemingless sheet integration” meaning the object does not fully obey the constraints imposed by the sheet grid structure. It also uses a completely different option-set UI for styling the text region (borders, background, text direction etc…) and while there is an option for a floating texbox object to auto-resize when the grid resizes, I consider this a form of mitigation for not being treated as valid cell input. Here are some issues which are not addressed by this mitigation: 1) When inserting a textbox into a dense grid it’s not obvious at all at which cell the textbox lands since it is placed somewhere relative to the mouse cursor down right which makes the initial position of textbox practically unpredictable. 2) You need to remember to activate snap-to-grid in order resize the textbox object so it can be accurately positioned along cell boundaries. 3) Formatting the textbox object requires selecting the entire shape and therefore, it's very easy to move it by accident when working with a touchpad, aging mouse or simply having a fast workflow.

See other issues which are applicable to floating objects in general:

https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/13826847-insert-equations-into-cell-instead-of-as-floating

As part of my work, I spend a ton of time writing text inside of Excel spreadsheet cells. What I'm writing needs to be neatly formatted and easily legible, so my cells contain many line breaks.

I find it endlessly frustrating that a line break requires Alt+Enter instead of simply Enter. I virtually never require the Enter key's default behavior of moving the selected cell. I end up hitting Enter out of habit, switch cells, and lose where I was with my typing.

I would greatly appreciate an option to switch the behavior of the Enter key to always create a line break, rather than that behavior being mapped to Alt+Enter.

Thank you