Center Across Selection to Hide Content in other cell

[eemiller1997]

It appears Center Across Selection only works if the cells being centered across don't have any data, but what if that's exactly what I want to do.

If, for example, R3 and S3 both have the same date in it, because I need both to be recognized as a date, but I don't need two cells side-by-side with the same data. I can't merge them, or only one column will have the associated data for conditional formatting and formula references.

So, it would be nice to simply have the data from R3 cover S3 so it appears as if it is merged, with the data shown once centered across and looking nice and neat, when in reality both cells are identical and usable for formulas and conditions.

I've tried hiding the content by formatting it with ;;; but that doesn't work. It's still considered as having content as far as the centering across is concerned.

What would be a good workaround for this?

Thank you.

center-across-selection.jpg