Excel AutoFill Shortcuts

Excel’s AutoFill feature is one of the simplest ways to improve work efficiency. Since simple repetitive tasks can be handled with Excel AutoFill shortcuts, let’s look at the available Excel shortcuts.

Excel AutoFill Shortcuts

The best way to fill blank cells in Excel is to copy and paste.
However, there are about four ways to use the fill function without copying first.

Fill by Dragging the Mouse

You can fill Excel cells by dragging from a cell that contains a value.
The advantages of using mouse drag to AutoFill in Excel are as follows.

1. You can AutoFill in any direction from the source cell.
2. Numbers, days of the week, and other values with clear patterns are automatically adjusted as they are filled.
   (Windows: use the ALT key / Mac: use the Option key)

Excel Shortcut to Fill Cell Values Down

One way to automatically fill cells with the desired value using an Excel shortcut is to fill down.

WINDOWS: CTRL + D

MAC: Command + D

There are two ways to use it.

1. Select a range that includes the cell value to copy, then use the AutoFill shortcut to fill the values immediately.
2. When you use the AutoFill shortcut in a blank cell, it copies the value from the cell above.

Excel Shortcut to Fill Cell Values Right

The second Excel AutoFill shortcut fills cell values to the right.

WINDOWS: CTRL + R

MAC: Command + R

There are two ways to use it.

1. Select a range that includes the cell value to copy, then use the AutoFill shortcut to fill the values immediately.
2. When you use the AutoFill shortcut in a blank cell, it copies the value from the cell to the left.

Excel Shortcut for Pattern Filling (Flash Fill)

Among Excel AutoFill shortcuts, Flash Fill recognizes a pattern and fills the cells automatically.

WINDOWS: CTRL + E

MAC: Control + E

Enter the source cell values in the format you want, then use “Control + E.”

A drawback of Flash Fill is that the results do not change when the source data changes.

To create cells that update automatically, use the functions below.

TEXT Function

FIND Function

REPLACE Function

MID, LEFT, and RIGHT Functions

LEN and SUBSTITUTE Functions

Conclusion

You can create report-style Excel files by converting the format of calculated formula results.