Workiva Support Center

After adding content to your table, you can format your table to show or hide cells, move columns and rows, as well as lock specific cells to prevent further changes.

Merge and split cells

You can combine multiple cells into one cell by using the merge and split options.

To merge cells in a table:

1. Select the cells you want to merge.
2. Right-click the cells and select Merge Cells from the dropdown menu.
3. Select how you want to merge the cells.

• Merge All combines cells across both rows and columns.
• Merge Horizontally combines the cells into single rows.
• Merge Vertically combines the cells into single columns.

Note: Merging cells across multiple rows and cells at once retains only the information in the top-left cell.

To split a cell or range of cells in a table into multiple cells:

1. Select the cells you want to split.
2. Right-click the cells and select Merge Cells .
3. Choose Unmerge from the menu.

Hide rows and columns

Rather than deleting a column or row that you may need later, you can hide them from the current view using the Hide Rows and Columns feature. 

To hide a row or column:

1. Right-click the header of the column or row.
2. Select Hide from the menu.

To unhide a row or column:

1. Right-click any header in the table.
2. Select Unhide from the menu.
3. Select the row or column to unhide. If you’d like to reveal all hidden columns, select All Columns.

Drag and drop cells

To drag and drop cells in your embedded table:

1. Select cells in your table.
2. Hover over the border of the selection until a hand indicator appears.
3. Drag the cells to your desired location.

Lock cells

Locking cells prevents changes to data, including changes to the formatting. Locking only a destination cell still allows the value of that cell to be changed at the source, and you can still tag XBRL on locked cells.

Note: Only document Owners can lock and unlock cells.

To lock a table or cells:

1. Select the cells.
2. From the Edit toolbar, click the Lock icon.

Note: Rows, columns, or tables containing locked cells cannot be deleted.

Once you lock a cell, editors will be unable to make further changes. If you’d like to allow editing again, select the cells and click Unlock in the toolbar.

Apply filters

You can apply filters to an embedded table to further organize how you view your data.

To apply a filter:

1. Select the range of cells you want to filter. If you'd like to filter an entire column, click the column header. Hold SHIFT to select multiple columns.
2. From the Data toolbar, click Filter and select Apply Filter from the menu.
3. Click the filter icon at the top of the column to open the customization options.
4. Select what you'd like to show and hide in your table. You can find and select specific items using the Search option, or click Change at the top of the panel to filter by values or dates.
5. Click Apply to apply the filter.

You can add a different filter to each column in a range by selecting the filter icon at the top of the column. If your column contains hidden rows due to another filter in the table, you'll see those values listed under Hidden Items.

Note: Filters can only be applied to one selected range in each embedded table, but you can customize the filter on each selected column.

Once you apply a filter, you can remove or reapply it from the Filter menu in the Data toolbar.