Typing “January, February, March…” or numbering 500 rows by hand is the kind of job Excel was built to do for you. AutoFill spots the pattern in what you’ve typed and continues it, and it’s also the fastest way to copy a formula down a column.
Find the fill handle
Click any cell. In the bottom-right corner of the green border there’s a tiny square. That’s the fill handle. When you hover over it, your pointer turns into a thin black +.
Everything in this guide starts with that little square.
1. Fill days, months and dates
- Type Monday (or Jan, or a date like 01/10/2026) in a cell.
- Hover over the fill handle until you see the black +.
- Drag down or across.
Excel continues the series: Tuesday, Wednesday… or Feb, Mar… or the next day’s date. It works with full and short names.
2. Fill a number sequence
If you type 1 and drag, Excel usually just copies the 1. To count upwards:
- Type 1 in the first cell and 2 in the cell below.
- Select both cells.
- Drag the fill handle down.
Excel follows whatever gap you set. 5 and 10 fills 15, 20, 25. 2026 and 2027 fills the years.
Text with a number on the end works too. Week 1, Item 1, Q1 and Room 101 all count up automatically.
3. Copy a formula down a whole column
This is the trick that saves the most time.
- Type your formula in the first row, for example
=B2*C2. - Double-click the fill handle.
Excel copies the formula down to the last row of your data, however many rows that is. It stops when the column next to it runs out of data, so there are no gaps to worry about.
4. Change what AutoFill did
After you drag, a small Auto Fill Options box appears near the bottom of the filled cells. Click it to choose:
- Copy Cells: repeat the same value
- Fill Series: count up instead
- Fill Formatting Only or Fill Without Formatting
- Fill Weekdays: dates that skip Saturdays and Sundays
- Fill Months or Fill Years: step dates by month or year
5. Fill a precise series
For a long or specific series, use the menu instead of dragging:
- Type the starting value in a cell and select it.
- Go to Home > Fill > Series.
- Choose Rows or Columns, set the Step value (e.g. 1) and the Stop value (e.g. 1000).
- Click OK.
That’s the easy way to number 1 to 1,000 without dragging past the bottom of the screen.
Keyboard shortcuts
- Ctrl + D fills down: select a cell and the empty cells below it, then press it to copy the top cell down.
- Ctrl + R fills right in the same way.
- Ctrl + Enter types the same value into every selected cell at once.
Troubleshooting
There’s no fill handle. Go to File > Options > Advanced and tick Enable fill handle and cell drag-and-drop.
Double-click doesn’t fill all the way down. The column next to it has a blank cell. AutoFill stops at the first gap. Drag instead, or fill in the gap.
It copied instead of counting. Give Excel two examples, or use the Auto Fill Options box and choose Fill Series.
Wrapping up
The fill handle is small, but it’s one of the biggest time-savers in Excel. Drag it to continue a pattern, and double-click it to copy a formula to the bottom of your data in one go.
