In Excel 2007, if you highlight a block of cells and then "Format as Table", it doesn't just apply colors and formatting, it somehow marks those cells as being a table.

Now I want to get rid of the table, but keep all the cells (i.e. keep the data). So I tried clearing the table style and formatting, but Excel still recognizes those cells as being a table. I can tell because:

• When I select a cell that was in the table, Excel still displays the "Table Tools / Design" tab
• I cannot merge cells that were in the table <- this is what's annoying me

So, how do I un-table those cells? I want to keep all the cell data and formatting, but have Excel not recognize them as a table.