Vertically Merged Cells

Although the previous examples may have implied that tables have strict definition of rows, table cells can also be merged vertically. The <tcPr> element may contain the <vmerge> element that defines the extent of vertically merged grid columns within a table. A <vmerge> element with its @val attribute set to restart marks the start of a vertically merged cell range. A <vmerge> element with the @val attribute set to continue (the default value) marks the continuation of a vertically merged grid column. Cells between the first and last merged cell that are part of the vertical merge each must have a <vmerge> element to continue the vertical merge.

For example, consider a table with two rows and two columns:

First cell, first row	Last cell, first row
First cell, second row	Last cell, second row

Merging the two rows in the second column will result in the following table:

First cell, first row	Last cell, first rowLast cell, second row
First cell, second row

The last cell in the first row starts a merge that is completed in the cell below it, resulting in the following WordprocessingML:

<w:tr>
  <w:tc>
    <w:p>
      <w:r>
        <w:t>First cell, first row</w:t>
      </w:r>
    </w:p>
  </w:tc>
  <w:tc>
    <w:tcPr>
      <w:vmerge w:val="restart"/>
    </w:tcPr>
    <w:p>
      <w:r>
        <w:t>Last cell, first row</w:t>
      </w:r>
    </w:p>
    <w:p>
      <w:r>
        <w:t>Last cell, second row</w:t>
      </w:r>
    </w:p>
  </w:tc>
</w:tr>
<w:tr>
  <w:tc>
    <w:p>
      <w:r>
        <w:t>First cell, second row</w:t>
      </w:r>
    </w:p>
  </w:tc>
  <w:tc>
    <w:tcPr>
      <w:vmerge/>
    </w:tcPr>
    <w:p/>
  </w:tc>
</w:tr>

As shown, the <vmerge> with a value of restart begins (or restarts) a merged region, and the cell with no value is merged with the one above.