w:vMerge (Vertical Merge)

Marks a cell as part of a vertically merged group. The first cell uses w:val='restart'; subsequent cells omit the attribute.

Parent elements

w:tcPr

Description

w:vMerge controls vertical cell merging (merging across rows). It is defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 §17.4.84.

The first cell in a vertical merge group uses <w:vMerge w:val="restart"/>. Every subsequent cell in the same column that is part of the merge uses <w:vMerge/> (no w:val), and must still contain a w:p (which will be ignored for layout purposes). The merge ends at the next row that does not have w:vMerge in that column.

Attributes

Attribute	Type	Possible Values	Description
`w:val`	`ST_Merge`	`restart` (start a new merge group), or omitted/`continue` (continue an existing merge group).	Marks the role of this cell in the vertical merge.

Examples

<!-- Row 1: start of merge -->
<w:tc>
  <w:tcPr><w:vMerge w:val="restart"/></w:tcPr>
  <w:p><w:r><w:t>Merged cell</w:t></w:r></w:p>
</w:tc>

<!-- Row 2: continuation of merge -->
<w:tc>
  <w:tcPr><w:vMerge/></w:tcPr>
  <w:p/>
</w:tc>

// Row 1 (start)
new TableCell(
  new TableCellProperties(new VerticalMerge { Val = MergedCellValues.Restart }),
  new Paragraph(new Run(new Text("Merged cell"))));

// Row 2 (continue)
new TableCell(
  new TableCellProperties(new VerticalMerge()),
  new Paragraph());

Notes

Continuation cells must still be present in the XML with an empty w:p — they are required for the grid to be consistent.
Vertical merge and w:gridSpan can be combined for complex merged regions.