Which feature is used to automatically fill the series in Excel?
|
Fill Handle is a feature in Excel that enables you to auto-complete a list in a row/column by simply dragging it using your mouse. Show
A basic understanding of fill handle in Excel could save you some time and make you more productive.
What’s this Fill Handle in Excel?‘Fill Handle’ is a tool that you can use to autocomplete lists in Excel. For example, if you have to enter numbers 1 to 20 in cell A1:A20, instead of manually entering each number, you can simply enter the first two numbers and use the fill handle to do the rest. How to Use Fill Handle in Excel?Let’s first understand where is the fill handle in Excel. Suppose you have the data as shown below:  Here are the steps to use the fill handle to quickly insert numbers up to 20.
If you have data in the adjacent column, you can also hover the mouse over the right edge of the selection and double click. It will automatically fill the list to the last cell based on the data in the adjacent column. For example, if I double-click on the fill handle (as shown below), it will fill the column till cell A11 (since there is data until cell B11 in the adjacent column. Examples of Using Fill Handle in ExcelIn the above examples, we saw how to use fill handle in excel to complete the list of numbers (that increment by 1). There are many more situations when a fill handle can automatically detect the pattern and fill the cells. Here are the inbuilt fill handle patterns you can use: Autofill Numbers that Increment/Decrement by 1As shown above, you can quickly fill cells when the number increments/decrements by 1. Note that the fill handle works in both directions. You can either fill down by dragging it down or fill up the dragging it upwards. Autofill Weekday NamesYou can use fill handle in Excel to autocomplete weekday names. It could either be the three alphabets nomenclature (Mon, Tue…) or the full name (Monday, Tuesday…). Note that it fills the cells with 7 weekdays names and then start over with the same name where you started. For example, in the above example, it starts with Monday, and after Sunday it again automatically inserts Monday. Autofill DatesYou can easily autofill dates using the fill handle in Excel. Any date format that is recognized by Excel can be used by the fill handle. Auto Fill OptionsWhile fill handle recognizes patterns and fills the list, it also gives some additional options you can use. As soon you drag the mouse (or double click) and autocomplete the list, you will see the Autofill option icon at the bottom right of the list. When you click on this icon, a list of options becomes available. These options are different for different types of data (numbers, dates, days). Autofill Options for a List with NumbersWhen you use the fill handle to autocomplete a list of numbers, you will see the Auto Fill Options icon at the bottom right. Click on that icon to see additional options. Let’s go through these options:
Autofill Options for a List with DatesIn case you are using the fill handle to autocomplete dates, additional options become available in the autocomplete options. Here are the additional options that become available when working with dates:
Autofill Options for a List with Day Nameswhen working with day names, there are some additional options that appear (as compared with autofill with numbers). In this case, you can use the Fill Weekdays option to only show weekday names and not the weekends. What if you can’t find the fill handle in Excel?Don’t worry if the fill handle is not working in your Excel workbooks. There is an option to enable it (although it is enabled by default, it may happen that you disable it by mistake). Here is how to enable the fill handle in Excel:
Creating Custom Criteria for AutofillWhile the inbuilt autofill option is super helpful, you may want to do more by creating custom lists that can be identified by autofill. You can easily do this by creating custom lists and adding them to Excel. See Also: Creating Custom Lists in Excel for Autofill. Hope you found this tutorial. Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. You May Also Like the Following Excel Tutorials:
Which feature lets you fill in series automatically?Flash Fill automatically fills your data when it senses a pattern. For example, you can use Flash Fill to separate first and last names from a single column, or combine first and last names from two different columns.
Where is AutoFill option in Excel?Click File > Options. Click Advanced, and then under Editing options, select or clear the Enable AutoComplete for cell values check box to turn this option on or off.
|
