Excel contains a neat feature which can save you some time. If you let it, Excel will try to anticipate what you mean and give it to you automatically. This is especially useful when you have a collection of adjacent cells which have a numerical pattern in them.
For example, you might wish to number a list of items 1, 2, 3, ..., 50. One process would be to type each of these 50 numbers one at a time. The other process would be to let Excel have some of the work. Let's see how it happens.
Most
children above the age of 6 can correctly guess what comes next. The trick
is to give Excel enough information so it can guess what you want. With numbers,
the pattern is established with two numbers.
After you have entered the two numbers 1 and 2, you have done all the typing you need to get Excel to finish the work. The rest you do with the mouse.
You
select the cell at the beginning of the pattern (the 1) and
drag to the cell at the end of the pattern (the 2) and release
the mouse.
This will hightlight the two-cell block. Notice the "bump" on the lower right corner.
Carefully position your mouse over this bump and click and drag the bump down.
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Left Image: As you are dragging down, notice the text box that quickly displays the numbers Excel plans to put in the cells. You will continue to see these anticipated values until you release the mouse. Continue dragging down until you see the last number you wish to have in your list of numbers. Right Image: When you have reached the point where the listing of numbers should stop, you should release the mouse and the numbers will be displayed. The sequence of numbers should follow the pattern established by your initial selection. |
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If you established an initial pattern with 1 and 3, then Excel would guess you intend for the list to be 1,3,5,7,9,... If you used an initial pattern of 1 and 1.5, then Excel would guess 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, ...
That's pretty helpful...but Excel "sees" more things than just numbers as objects with a serial order. Let's look at a few others.
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| This is the beginning of copying the days of the week. If you look closely you will see the "bump" in the lower right corner of the cell containing Monday. | This is the beginning of copying the months of the year. If the dragging continues to the right, the remaining months of the year will be pasted in the cells on Row 2. |
You might not have guessed that numbers combined with text can have a serial order. Excel will "guess" what comes next if numbers are added at the end of text.
Excel will guess you wish Test 1, Test 2, Test 3, ... as you drag to the right. Had you chosen to drag down rather than right, the list would have appeared as:
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
displayed in Column A going down. This could be useful in building column headings with dates. (April 1, April 2, April 3, ...)
We found it something of a disappointment that the serial copying does not extend to text without numbers. If you start a pattern with A and end the pattern with B, Excel will guess you want A,B,A,B,AB, ... rather than A, B, C, D, ...
We were pleased that the "dragging of the bump" process extends to the copying of cells containing formulas or functions. The drag will produce a "relative" copy/paste similar to the Fill-Down or Fill-Right discussed in another tutorial. Excel provides several alternative paths to accomplish the same thing. We think this is neat!