Auto Filling Pre-Set Lists with the Fill Handle

One use for the fill handle is to add pre-set lists of data to an Excel worksheet.

While you can add custom lists to use with the fill handle, Excel comes equipped with several lists already loaded in the program. These lists include the days of the week and the months of the year.

Adding the Days of the Week with the Fill Handle

1. Click on cell A1 - the location where we will start adding the days of the week.


2. Type Sunday.


3. Press the ENTER key on the keyboard.


4. Click on the cell A1 again to make it the active cell again.


5. Place the mouse pointer over the small black dot in the bottom right corner of the active cell.


6. The mouse pointer will change to a small black plus sign ( + ) when you have it over the fill handle.


7. When the mouse pointer changes to the plus sign, click and hold down the mouse button.


8. Drag the fill handle to cell G1 to auto fill the days of the week from Monday to Saturday.


9. Excel also contains a pre-set list of the short forms for the days of the week such as Sun, Mon, etc.


10. To auto fill the short forms for the days of the week, type Sun in cell A1 and then repeat steps 3 to 8 again.


11. To auto fill the months of the year, type January or Jan in cell A1 and then repeat steps 3 to 8 again.

Related Tutorials

• Customizing Excel 2007 Fill Handle
• Copy Formulas with the Fill Handle
• Adding a Series of Numbers with the Fill Handle