How to Use Excel’s Fill Feature

Filling is a copying feature that’s unique to Excel. When you fill a formula from one cell to other cells, Excel automatically increments the formula, modifying the formula relative to its destination. For instance, if the cell A3 contained the formula =A1+A2, filling that formula to B3 would create the formula =B1+B2. In this way, the Fill feature allows you to insert a formula or function once but apply it to a range of rows or columns.

For some formulas, you may not want certain cells referenced in the formula to increment when you fill. You can control how a particular cell is referenced in a formula by using a $ sign. Placing the $ sign before the letter in a reference will stop that reference from incrementing across columns, whereas placing it before the number will stop the cell reference from incrementing across rows. For instance, if the cell A3 contained the formula =$A$1+A2, filling that formula to B3 would create the formula =$A$1+B2. The first cell would not increment due to the $ signs.

The fill feature automatically increments dates, months, or days of the week. For instance, if a cell contains the date 8/25/07, filling the cell below it will result in a date of 8/26/07. To increment the fill by days, you can just drag the fill handle of the cell with the first date to cover the destination cells. If you right-click on the fill handle and then drag, when you release, a pop-up menu will appear in which you can choose whether to increment by days, months, or years.

You can also use the fill feature to copy a cell’s formatting (font, cell alignment, cell background color, and so on) to adjacent cells: