That’s the basic Auto Fill, from there Excel has a lot of hidden tricks available. These examples jump by two, three and seven.Īs you can see, the starting value can be anything you like.

Excel looks at the difference between the two selected cells and repeats it. We’ll explain that a little later.Īuto Fill doesn’t stop at simple number list. As you drag the tooltip show the last value you’ll get if you complete the drag there.Īt the end of the completed fill is a little icon, click on that to see a fill menu of options. The simplest example is a list of integers, just drag down to make a list as long as you need. Enter two or more values, select them then drag down/across to fill more cells according to the repeat pattern in the selected cells. Dates are well supported with good options under a little-used menu as well as copying formatting choices. Auto Fill can be used for any type of data that fits a regular pattern. We thought we knew Auto Fill but it has some surprising and useful tricks.Īuto Fill goes beyond simple incrementing numbers or dates which is what most of us do. Typing or formatting cells of repetitive data can be very boring, but Excel has an Auto Fill feature to make it easier by automatically filling in data for you. Thanks for joining us! You'll get a welcome message in a few moments.