Microsoft Excel - Intermediate Level

Using the Fill function - Down, Right and Series

Excel provides several ways of filling cells with data, and can even work out the kind of data to be placed in cells. To access the Fill function, either use Edit>Fill> from the menu, or use the Fill handle which appears on the bottom, right of any selected cell. The Fill handle is usually dragged down or across (right), but be careful that the mouse pointer has become a cross shape before you start to drag.

Using the Fill handle.

Suppose you wanted to enter the numbers 1 to 20 down a column of cells starting at A1. The quick way of doing this is to enter 1 in cell A1 and 2 in cell A2. Now highlight cells A1 and A2 by dragging across them, then drag the Fill handle (now on cell A2) down to cell A20. You should find that it has taken the contents of cells A1 and A2 and used it as a rule for filling in the other values. Try this with other values in cells A1 and A2. This is a series fill.

A more involved way of doing the above, is to enter 1 in cell A1, then enter a formula in cell A2 similar to =A1+1. Dragging down the Fill handle of cell A2 to A20 will replicate the formula in a relative fashion, i.e. cell A3 is related to cell A2, A4 to A3 and so on.

However, by far the quickest way is: enter the value 1 into cell A1, drag the Fill handle down to cell A20 using the right mouse button, choose Fill Series from the menu which appears when you release the mouse button. If you had used the left mouse button to do this, all that would have happened is that the starting value would have been copied into cells A2 to A20.

All the above actions could have been carried out by highlighting cells A1 to A20, then choosing the appropriate Fill action from the Edit>Fill> menu. Get used to filling cells using the mouse as this is a more efficient method.