Excel like a finance pro.
Fill a date or number series without dragging
Double-click the fill handleEntry & fillDouble-click the little square and it runs to the bottom of the data, however long it is.
Difficulty
1What it does
The fill handle is the small square at the bottom-right of a selection. Dragging it is fine for ten rows and miserable for four thousand — double-clicking it fills all the way down to wherever the adjacent column stops, in one action. What it fills depends on what you give it: one date makes consecutive days, one number just copies, and TWO cells set a step, so 1 and 3 continue 5, 7, 9. Right-dragging the handle instead opens a menu with Fill Months and Fill Weekdays, which is how you get month-ends without a formula.
2The shortcut
- 1Type the first value — or the first two, if you want a specific step.
- 2Select them and double-click the fill handle at the bottom-right corner.
- 3Right-drag the handle instead to choose **Fill Months**, **Fill Weekdays** or **Series**.
3Before → after
Press the shortcut to play it on a sample sheet.
Double-click the fill handle
| A — Seed | B — Adjacent data | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Acme |
| 2 | Globex | |
| 3 | Initech | |
| 4 | Umbrella | |
| 5 | Soylent |
The handle fills to the bottom of the ADJACENT column, however long that is. Right-drag it instead for Fill Months and Fill Weekdays.
4When you use it
- Number four thousand rows without touching the mouse twice.
- Build a column of month-ends for a forecast.
- Continue a step series — every 7th day, every 1,000 units.
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