How can I get a value to expand over multiple rows in Excel?

Question

I need to place a text value spanning four rows. I thought/hoped this would work:

private int curDescriptionTopRow = 8;
. . .
private void AddDescription(String desc)
{
    int curDescriptionBottomRow = curDescriptionTopRow + 3;

    _xlSheet.Range[_xlSheet.Cells[curDescriptionTopRow, 1], _xlSheet.Cells[curDescriptionBottomRow, 1]].Font.Bold = true;
    _xlSheet.Range[_xlSheet.Cells[curDescriptionTopRow, 1], _xlSheet.Cells[curDescriptionBottomRow, 1]].VerticalAlignment = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlVAlign.xlVAlignCenter;
    _xlSheet.Range[_xlSheet.Cells[curDescriptionTopRow, 1], _xlSheet.Cells[curDescriptionBottomRow, 1]].Value2 = desc;

    curDescriptionTopRow = curDescriptionTopRow + 4;
}

I need the first description to display, vertically centered, in cells A8 - A11 (column A, rows 8-11).

The code above adds the description in all four rows, rather than just one time in the four rows.

How can I prevent the three redundant appearances of the description?

Answer 1

Defining and then Merging the range works:

private int curDescriptionTopRow = 8;
. . .
private void AddDescription(String desc)
{
    int curDescriptionBottomRow = curDescriptionTopRow + 3;

    var range =
        _xlSheet.Range[_xlSheet.Cells[curDescriptionTopRow, 1], _xlSheet.Cells[curDescriptionBottomRow, 1]];
    range.Merge();

    range.Font.Bold = true;
    range.VerticalAlignment = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlVAlign.xlVAlignCenter;
    range.Value2 = desc;
}