Set autofill as default when dragging a handle

[simonfinnerty333]

Hi there,

So whenever I've used Excel (2016) in the past, when dragging a handle or doubleclicking the autofill box, the autofill series has been the default option. i.e. dragging the value '1' in cell a1 down would autofill to 1,2,3,4,5 etc.

Now when I do it, it automatically copies, down as 1,1,1,1,1,.

Does anybody know how to change this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Joe4]

Welcome to the Board!

When you click and drag and pull/fill down, click on the little box that appears under the lower left corner, and change the option from "Copy Cells" to "Fill Series".

 

[FDibbins]

That should still work that way - are you sure you are dealing with real numbers, and not text numbers?

 

[admiral100]

Or maybe it's disabled....

http://blogmines.com/blog/how-to-disable-auto-fill-feature-in-excel-2010/

 

[simonfinnerty333]

Welcome to the Board!

When you click and drag and pull/fill down, click on the little box that appears under the lower left corner, and change the option from "Copy Cells" to "Fill Series".

Thanks, yes that option is available, but because I've gotten so used to the default of '1,2,3,4,5', the idea that it isn't the default is a quirk that annoys me. I wondered why it was default to copy,and if there was an option hidden away somewhere that I could change?

Thanks for your help!

 

[simonfinnerty333]

Yup, dealing with real numbers (I double checked the formatting). And the feature is certainly enabled within the options panel.

 

[Joe4]

Thanks, yes that option is available, but because I've gotten so used to the default of '1,2,3,4,5', the idea that it isn't the default is a quirk that annoys me. I wondered why it was default to copy,and if there was an option hidden away somewhere that I could change?

What I do is enter the first two values, then select both of them and double-click or drag-down. If Excel can see a pattern (increment or staying the same), it will continue that pattern.

So you could even in 2, 4 and then it will fill in 6, 8, 10, etc.

 

[thisoldman]

I've trained myself to drag and fill with the right mouse button. When the drag is finished, a context menu pops up. Usually I just select "Fill series".

The context menu gives good choices when you're dragging dates, too. For example, place 01/01/2017 (mm/dd/yyyy) in cell A1 and 01/15/2017 in A2. Select both cells and then do a drag and fill. A3 becomes 01/29/2017 and A4, 02/12/2017. Probably not what you want. Do the right-button drag and fill, select "Fill Months" and now A3 = 02/01/2017 and A4 = 02/15/2017. Aha!

Here's an odd variation. With A1 containing the integer 1 and B1 empty, select A1:B1 and and drag-fill downward. Column A will always fill as a series, column B will remain empty.

 

[FDibbins]

Yup, dealing with real numbers (I double checked the formatting). And the feature is certainly enabled within the options panel.

That still does not mean that the cells do contain real numbers - a text number formatted as general/percent/number/currency etc, is still a text number, not a real value, formatting wont change that. Do a quick test with =ISNUMBER(cell-ref) to be sure. FALSE indicates tewxt

 

[simonfinnerty333]

I checked this and TRUE was returned. Thanks for the suggestion though!