Forum Discussion
using the fill handle
Hello,
I use the excel file from the previous user where I fill in the data about the weight and the type of material.
Very often I just drag the vales, which are mostly the same. The point is that in the type of material I use number
like 5x10. And when I start dragging it down it changes +1 (5x11, etc.) And it only works for this column,
because for the rest of columns the value doesn't change. Which is sometimes unconvenient when you
need it for items numbers for example. I am interested in how it actually works for both cases,
so it would work automatically without pressing CTRL or whatever. Thank you.
1 Reply
The fill handle works as follows by default, if you start from one cell:
- Month names and their abbreviations: continue with the next month(s): January, February, ...
- Day names and their abbreviations: continue with the next day(s): Mon, Tue, Wed, ...
- You can create custom lists in File > Options > Advanced > General section > Edit Custom Lists...
- Numbers: copy the same number: 37, 37, 37, ...
- Text strings that end in a number: increase that number by 1 at a time: Item1, Item2, Item3, ...
- Text strings that do not end in a number: copy the same text string: John, John, John, ...
- Dates containing the day of the month: increase the date by 1 day at a time: 01-Aug-25, 02-Aug-25, 03-Aug-25, ...
- Dates consisting of a month and year only: increase by 1 month at a time: Jan-2025, Feb-2025, Mar-2025, ...
In your example, 5x10 is a text string ending in the number 10. So the fill handle will increase that number 10: 5x11, 5x12, ...
