Part I: Getting Started with Excel
Excel uses the cells’ data to guess the pattern. If you start with 1 and 2, it will guess you
want each cell to go up by 1. If, as in the previous example, you start with 1 and 3, it
guesses that you want the increment to be 2. Excel does a good job of guessing date pat-
terns too. If you start with 1/31/2019 and 2/28/2019, it will fill the last day of the succes-
sive months.
If you drag the fill handle while you press and hold the right mouse button, Excel displays a shortcut menu with addi-
tional fill options. You can also use Home ➪ Editing ➪ Fill for even more control over automatically filling a range.
Using AutoComplete to automate data entry
The Excel AutoComplete feature makes entering the same text into multiple cells easy. With
AutoComplete, you type the first few letters of a text entry into a cell, and Excel automati-
cally completes the entry based on other entries that you already made in the column.
Besides reducing typing, this feature ensures that your entries are spelled correctly and are
consistent.
Here’s how it works: Suppose you’re entering product information into a column. One of
your products is named Widgets. The first time you enter Widgets into a cell, Excel remem-
bers it. Later, when you start typing Widgets in that same column, Excel recognizes it by
the first few letters and finishes typing it for you. Just press Enter, and you’re done. To
override the suggestion, just keep typing.
AutoComplete also changes the case of letters for you automatically. If you start entering
widgets (with a lowercase w) in the second entry, Excel makes the w uppercase to be con-
sistent with the previous entry in the column.
You also can access a mouse-oriented version of AutoComplete by right-clicking the cell and choosing Pick from
Drop-Down List from the shortcut menu. Excel then displays a drop-down box that has all of the text entries in the
current column, and you just click the one that you want.
Keep in mind that AutoComplete works only within a contiguous column of cells. If you
have a blank row, for example, AutoComplete identifies only the cell contents below the
blank row.
Sometimes, Excel will use AutoComplete to try to finish a word when you don’t want it to
do so. If you type canister in a cell and then below it type the shorter word can, Excel will
attempt to AutoComplete the entry to canister. When you want to type a word that starts
with the same letters as an AutoComplete entry but is shorter, simply press the Delete key
when you’ve reached the end of the word and then press Enter or a navigation key.
