How To Do Autofill In Excel – Tech Tips Microsoft Excel How to Master Excel AutoFill Makes Data Entry Work for You! By Daniel Davis Rowe
Autofill in Excel. Do you often find yourself entering repetitive data or formulas in your spreadsheets? You are not alone. The following tips tell you how to use AutoFill in Microsoft Excel to quickly insert lists and repeating formulas like a pro.
How To Do Autofill In Excel
Excel can automatically advance a series (list) of numbers, dates, or time periods based on a pattern you set up. You can use AutoFill to create custom lists and automatically recreate them in new worksheets.
Autofill In Excel: Here’s How To Save Time Using Microsoft Autofill
Invoke autofill by selecting the appropriate boxes and dragging the fill handle. The fill handle is located in the lower right corner of the selected cells. It appears as a small square in the outline around the selected cells.
You can drag the fill handle in any direction. Drag a column down to fill the grade down, or drag a column up to fill it up. Drag it along a line to create a right (or left) gradient.
Excel is set up to automatically fill in patterns based on numbers, dates, times, or combinations of numbers and text.
What Is Autofill In Excel?
Excel can expand various number patterns. The most common number pattern is counting (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.). However, if you enter a single number (like 1), select it and drag it, then release the fill handle, and all cells will be filled with the number 1. To solve the problem, you need to enter a pattern in Excel. Imitation. Instead, type “1” in the first box and “2” in the second box. Select both cells; Then use the fill handle.
Excel can automatically fill in numbers based on other patterns, such as odd or even. Start by entering two or more numbers (like “1” and “3”) into their own cells, select them, and use the fill handle.
Excel can extend a range of dates. The most common date-based pattern is incrementing dates (1/1/2020, 1/2/2020, 1/3/2020, etc.) Unlike numeric patterns, if you enter a date and use the fill handle, Excel will. Automatically increment the date of each cell you autofill as shown in the image below. Unlike the numerical example above, you don’t need to enter multiple dates to get started.
How To Make An Autofill List In Excel
If you want to increment different days, months, or years, start by entering the first two days in their own cells. Then select those cells and use fill handle. Complete dates are not required for autofill. Excel can span a range of months, days of the week, quarters, or years.
Like dates, Excel can span a range. To extend the time by one hour, just enter your starting time. Select the box and autofill from there. Anything more complex requires entering the pattern into several cells first.
You can create your own autofill lists. For example, if you’re always creating worksheets containing a list of attorneys in your department and you’re tired of typing them all the time, you can let AutoFill do the work for you. Follow these steps to make that list a permanent option, then drop it into a new workbook.
What Patterns Can Autofill Recognize?
Sometimes, you want to repeat a formula, such as the sum of a column. In the first row, enter the formula to sum that row. Then, repeat the formula on other rows.
Just as you would create a list, you can use the AutoFill handle to copy the formula from one cell to the next. Cell references are set automatically when the formula is auto-filled.
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Danielle Davis Rowe is a Senior Consultant at Affinity Consulting Group (@affinitylegal). Whether it’s teaching clients new skills through training, CLE events, or management consulting, Danielle is 100% focused on making her clients’ lives better. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and a Juris Doctor from The Ohio State University Moritz School of Law.
We use cookies on our website to remember your preferences and return visits to provide you with the most relevant experience. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of all cookies.Accept Privacy Policy Entering predictable or repetitive data in Excel isn’t fun, and you wonder if there’s a way to speed up the process.
The good news: There is! Excel’s AutoFill feature means you can set up your document to predict data patterns and let cells fill them.
How To Autofill Only Weekday Dates In Excel
AutoFill is Excel’s way of being your smart little assistant, knowing exactly what you need to do next and doing it for you. These are all ways to describe the various built-in features that save keystrokes and time filling in values to reduce pattern selection and manual entry.
Autocompletion shows up in a variety of ways—sometimes by copying a formula to adjacent cells, other times by completing a list of days or months, or observing a formatting pattern and applying it to empty cells. Ready to learn how Excel can help you?
Each active cell (where your cursor currently sits) has a fill handle. It’s the small green square in the lower right corner of the active cell.
Video: Use Autofill And Flash Fill
The fill handle can be used to recreate a value by going to the cell with the desired value and dragging the fill handle to the desired cells to display the same value. This works whether the cells in the range to be filled are empty or contain values. If they have values, those values are overwritten.
If we go to Cell B5 and drag the Fill Handle to B9 the price of orchids, peonies, roses and tulips will now be $19.
Other times there is a clear pattern to complete. A pattern can be a trend of numbers, days or months in which a certain value rises or falls. In this case, you want to create it automatically rather than subject yourself to the hassle of manual entry.
How To Manage Your Excel Formulas: Copy, Paste And Autofill
We want to enter the remaining months of the year in the columns on the right. We want to highlight both cells A1 and B1, then drag the B1 fill handle until we reach “December”.
Since we made cell A1 our active cell, Excel recognizes that “January” and “February” often refer to the series “January, February…”. This establishes the beginning of a pattern that our helper will use to complete the task.
Now we’re on a roll. We enter the first few numbers in a range and use autofill to copy them into empty cells.
Fill Data Automatically In Worksheet Cells
Of course, we’ll need to eliminate a few extra days in a few months, but you get the idea. Not having to type in those numbers one by one will save you time (and maybe your sanity).
When you want to copy a formula to adjacent cells instead of pressing copy and paste, AutoFill comes to the rescue again. Fill in groups with relative, absolute, and mixed cell reference principles to determine which part of the copied formula should be equal to the original and relative to the row and column. It is located.
In the above scenario, Excel is good enough to recognize where your data ends up, so the double-click method worked. If there are gaps in your data that make it difficult for Excel to recognize where the data ends, you may need to drag to the end of the data set.
Solved When Valerie Used Autofill To Copy A Formula, Excel
Speaking of formulas, have you ever noticed that when you start typing the first few letters of an Excel function, Excel suggests a list of functions starting with the letters you typed? If you press the Tab key, Excel completes the name of the first function in the list and the opening parenthesis. Alternatively, you can arrow up to what you want, press the Tab key, and enter the arguments and close the parentheses.
After you execute an AutoFill command, you may notice the small icon at the bottom right of the fill handle.
When you click on that icon, you’ll see several options that allow you to override the action of the autofill feature:
Inls161 002 Spring 2016 Information Tools
Even if Excel completes a range based on a pattern it picks up, if you really want to copy the existing values, you’ll choose “Copy Cells”.
It’s all there