Excel's Edit, Fill features can quickly generate rows or columns of
cells for you. While you can use the more formal Edit,
Fill menu (below, Figure 1), it is often faster to just fill down or across
using Excel's drag and drop feature.
Figure 1 - Edit, Fill menu The keys to using using
Excel's drag and drop feature are the drag and drop black square at the lower
right corner of each cell and the fill cursor. The drag and drop black square
is pictured below in Figure 2. The window is zoomed out to 400% for
demonstration purposes only.
Figure 2 - Drag & drop square in lower right corner of cell
Filling Down
The animated image below (Figure 3) demonstrates how to do a simple
fill down of only one value. To do this, select cell A1, enter the value 1 in
cell A1, and press the Enter key. Select cell A1 again, hover over the drag
& drop square and the cursor will change to the fill cursor (a solid black
crosshair). Left-click mouse down and start dragging to cell A2, A3, ... all
the way down to cell A10 and let go of the mouse.
Figure 3 - A simple fill down with only one value (plays 3 times). To replay,
press F5. The animated image below (Figure 4)
demonstrates a common way to fill down with a series of values such as 1, 2,
... To do this, select cell A1, enter the value 1 in cell A1, and press the
Enter key. Enter 2 in cell A2. Select cells A1 & A2 , hover over the drag
& drop square and the cursor will change to the fill cursor (a solid black
crosshair). Left-click mouse down and start dragging to cell A2, A3, ... all
the way down to cell A10 and let go of the mouse.
Figure 4 - A fill down with a series starting with 1, 2 (plays 3 times). To
replay, press F5. Below (Figure 5) are series of even
numbers, odd numbers, abbreviated days of the week, formal days of the week,
abbreviated months of the year, and formal months of the year. One thing to
remember is that with days of the week for example, you don't have to stop at
the end of the week. You can keep filling down and it will cycle though
Saturday, Sunday, Monday, ...
Figure 5 - Series examples
Filling Right
All of the demonstrations so far have involved filling down. One can
fill up, fill left, but a more common practice would be to Edit, Fill, Right
pictured below (Figure 6).
Figure 6 - Fill, Right
If you cannot fill or cannot see the drag & square.
If you cannot fill down or if you cannot see the drag & drop square
(Figure 7 below) then you do not have the right Excel Option checked.
Figure 7 - No drag & drop square To correct this
situation, got to Tools, Options, Edit tab and check the "Allow cell drag
and drop" checkbox. Then click the Okay button.
Key points to remember
The key points to remember when filling cells are to select enough
cells before hovering over the drag square and getting the fill cursor. Excel
needs the right amount of cells selected before it can guess what series you
want. If you want to do more complicated filling, look
into the Edit, Fill menu features of Excel described near the top of this page.
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