Page 119 - Excel 2013 All-in-One For Dummies

The key to using AutoFill is the Fill handle, which is the small black square that appears in the lower-right corner of whatever cell contains the cell cursor. When you position the mouse or Touch pointer on the Fill handle,
it changes from the normal thick, white-cross pointer to a thin, black-cross pointer. This change in shape is your signal that when you drag the Fill handle in a single direction, either down or to the right, Excel will either copy the current cell entry to all the cells that you select or use it as the first entry in a consecutive series, whose successive entries are then automati- cally entered in the selected cells.
Note that you can immediately tell whether Excel will simply copy the cell entry or use it as the first in a series to fill out by the ScreenTips that appear to the right of the mouse pointer. As you drag through subsequent cells,
the ScreenTip indicates which entry will be made if you release the mouse button (or remove your finger or stylus from a touchscreen) at that point.
If the ScreenTip shows the same entry as you drag, you know Excel didn’t recognize the entry as part of a consecutive series and is copying the entry verbatim. If, instead, the ScreenTips continue to change as you drag through cells showing you successive entries for the series, you know that Excel has recognized the original entry as part of a consecutive series.
Figures 1-8 and 1-9 illustrate how AutoFill works. In Figure 1-8, I entered January as the first column heading in cell B2 (using the Enter button on the Formula bar so as to keep the cell cursor in B2, ready for AutoFill). Next,
I positioned the mouse pointer on the AutoFill handle in the lower-right corner of B2 before dragging the Fill handle to the right until I reached cell G2 (and the ScreenTip stated June).
Figure 1-9 shows the series that was entered in the cell range B2:G2 when
I released the mouse button with cell G2 selected. For this figure, I also clicked the drop-down button attached to the Auto Fill Options button that automatically appears whenever you use the Fill handle to copy entries or fill in a series to show you the items on this drop-down menu. This menu contains a Copy Cells option button that enables you to override Excel’s decision to fill in the series and have it copy the original entry (January, in this case) to all the selected cells.
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