Dipping my toes into the Excel pool, I never knew there were so many ways to be repetitious. I first came across autofill or what I think it should be called, seqfill, when Robert told me about how it saves time doing sequential numbers like dates down a row of columns. Typing manually 10/01/2015, 10/02/2015 and so on is a tenuous endeavor that could make one's brain go numb. Just type the date say, 10/01/15 in the first cell or box and here's the fun part, there's a microscopic green square in the bottom right hand corner of said box. Didn't know it was there, did you? Me neither. So, you put your mouse on it, hold and drag down. No more staying late. Yay!
Then sometime later when I was playing around with a free trial of Office 2016, came across flashfill, or copyfill. It does the same thing as seqfill but with text or numbers but with a twist. Say you have a row of full names and you want a row of just first names next to the full names. Type the first name in the box. Go to the Data tab or Data menu, there is a flash fill button, click it and voila, it does the rest. Time for some jellybeans.
In my next installment, Why do I have to keep coming up with better jargon than Microsoft? Pivot table? Seriously? What is that?
Debbie
Wallis and her husband Robert, are owners of AxBean, a guiding light to
all things Microsoft Access and Excel. They reside in the central
valley area of Sacramento, California between agriculture and government
central. When not working, you can see them running about outside,
exploring shops, chowing down at all kinds of eateries and whenever
possible, being more curious than a cat. Find out more at AxBean.com. Labels: autofill, Excel, flashfill
