TableCoveredTableCellElement coveredCell = (TableCoveredTableCellElement) OdfXMLFactory.newOdfElement(
(OdfFileDom) cell.getOwnerDocument(),
OdfName.newName(OdfDocumentNamespace.TABLE, "covered-table-cell"));
TableTableRowElement parentRowEle = cellBase.getTableRow().getOdfElement();
parentRowEle.insertBefore(coveredCell, cell);
//copy the content of this cell to the first cell
firstCell.appendContentFrom(cellBase);
cellBase.removeContent();
//set the table column repeated attribute
int repeatedNum = cell.getTableNumberColumnsRepeatedAttribute();