Home Tab Alignment Group (Center Across Selection)¶

Location: Excel Home tab → Alignment group (replaced by EGTools++) → Center Across Selection below the merge button

When EGTools++ is loaded, the built-in Alignment group on Excel's Home tab is hidden and an Alignment group with the same layout is rebuilt in its place. An add-in cannot insert controls into a built-in Office group, so the whole group is recreated; the only difference is one extra button, Center Across Selection, placed below the merge button. It changes only the horizontal alignment to "Center Across Selection" without merging cells, so a title can be centered over several columns while sorting, filtering and formula references keep working.

The replacement happens only when Excel's merge dropdown does not already have the native "Center Across Selection" item (idMso CenterAcrossSelection). On an Excel that already has the native item the default Alignment group is left untouched and the EGTools++ button does not appear — use Excel's own item instead.

Group layout¶

Position	Control	Origin
Left, row 1	Top Align · Middle Align · Bottom Align · Orientation	Excel built-in
Left, row 2	Align Left · Center · Align Right · Decrease Indent · Increase Indent	Excel built-in
Right, row 1	Wrap Text	Excel built-in
Right, row 2	Merge & Center (dropdown)	Excel built-in
Right, row 3	Center Across Selection	Added by EGTools++
Dialog launcher	Format Cells: Alignment	Excel built-in

The built-in controls are the hidden default group's own controls placed again, so their behaviour, labels and keyboard shortcuts are Excel's.

How it runs — Center Across Selection¶

Select the column range to spread across within a row, with the cell holding the content at the left edge (for example A1:F1). If several rows are selected, each row is handled on its own.
Click Center Across Selection in the Home tab → Alignment group.
The horizontal alignment of the selection is set to Center Across Selection (xlHAlignCenterAcrossSelection): in each row the content is displayed centered over the run of empty cells to its right. No cells are merged.
Clicking again on the same range sets the horizontal alignment back to General (xlHAlignGeneral) — the button is a toggle.

Rules¶

Situation	Behaviour
The whole selection is already "Center Across Selection"	Reverts to General alignment
Mixed (only part of the selection has it) or not applied	Applies Center Across Selection to the whole selection
A non-cell object is selected (shape, chart, picture, …)	Does nothing
Vertical direction	Only the horizontal alignment changes; content is not centered vertically (this is how Excel's "Center Across Selection" is defined). Use Top/Middle/Bottom Align for vertical placement
Undo	This is an add-in command, so it is not recorded in Excel's Undo (`Ctrl+Z`). To revert, click the button again or change the horizontal alignment in Format Cells

Notes¶

Microsoft is gradually rolling out a "Center Across Selection" item inside the merge dropdown, starting with the Microsoft 365 Insider channel (September 2026 What's New). EGTools++ provides the feature on the Home tab so it is also available in Excel 2010–2024 and in Microsoft 365 builds that have not received it yet. On an Excel that already has the native item, EGTools++ detects it at load time and does not replace the Alignment group, so the two never appear together — use Excel's own item. The check runs once when EGTools++ loads, so if a channel or build change adds or removes the native item, the change takes effect after Excel is restarted.
The same effect is available from the Format Cells dialog (Ctrl+1) → Alignment tab → Horizontal Center Across Selection. This button is a one-click shortcut to apply or clear it.
To make several value-holding cells merely look merged, see Merge Keeping Values; that command applies merge formatting, whereas this button only changes the horizontal alignment.
When EGTools++ is unloaded, the replacement group disappears and Excel's default Alignment group reappears.