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Automatically fill data in adjacent cells (Autofill)

March 31, 2008 By

You can save yourself allot of typing if you know how to make use of autofill feature in Excel.

Suppose you want to enter names of days in cells A1 to A7 (Sun, Mon, …. Sat). Here is what you do:

  1. Enter “Sun” on cell “A1”.
  2. Drag the fill handle across the cells that you want to fill (A2 to A7).

You can also use Autofill to enter your own series of numbers. For example you can fill cells with the numbers 5,10,15,20 … etc as follows:

  1. Select the first cell in the range that you want to fill.
  2. Type the starting value for the series (5 in our example).
  3. Type a value in the next cell to establish a pattern (10).
  4. Select the first two cells that contain the starting values.
  5. Drag the fill handle across the range that you want to fill.

Applies to: Excel 2003

Filed Under: Data, Lists Tagged With: , , , ,

How to create a custom date format

March 29, 2008 By

Excel provides a vast number of common date formats. However if you do need a format that is not included in the built-in list then you can create your own custom format as follows:

  1. Right-click on the cell where the date is.
  2. Select Format Cells.
  3. When the dialogue box opens select the Number tab.
  4. In the Category list to the left select Date.
  5. In the Type list to the right select the format closest to what you want. A sample format will show above.
  6. In the Category list to the left select Custom. A list of custom formats will show to the right, and the format you selected will show in the Edit Box above.
  7. Modify the format in the Edit Box and watch the sample.
  8. When you are satisfied click OK.
  9. The new format will be applied to the cell and will also be added to the list of custom formats.

Applies to: Excel 2003

Filed Under: Date and Time, Formatting Tagged With: , , ,