Drag down to fill in, but copy, not increment?

[Ed]

I can hold the CTRL key and copy a cell down one row. Is there any way to
drag the corner down like you do to fill in an incrementing series, but
instead copy the same value down through the whole range?

Ed

 

[Dave Peterson]

It depends on what you select. If you select two cells (say A1:A2 and a1=a2),
then you'll get what you want.

But personally, if I don't remember what excel will do when I drag down, I'll
rightclick on that autofill button and drag down. When I let go, I'll see a
menu of choices and I can do what I want.

 

[Ed]

*Right* click and drag - I'd forgotten that one! Thanks, Dave!

Ed

 

[Dave Peterson]

Saves wear and tear on the brain, too!

*Right* click and drag - I'd forgotten that one! Thanks, Dave!

Ed

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Ed,

Hold Ctrl as you drag the Fill Handle.

 

[Ed]

I tried that, Earl, but it kept wanting to increment. I'm using XL 2002.

Ed

 

[Gord Dibben]

Ed

Earl's method should work.

Try this one............

Right-click and drag.

Release button and select "Copy Cells"


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Ed,

Interesting. If it's text ending in digits, e.g.: "Dept1", the Fill Handle
it normally increments, but the Ctrl key stops the incrementing. If it's a
number, it's the other way around. I'm wondering what you have in the cell.

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Ed,

If you let go of Ctrl before you've released the mouse button, the Ctrl has
no effect. It only looks at the Ctrl key at the moment you let go of the
mouse button (you don't have to have pressed it when you first started
dragging). Could that be it?

 

[Ed]

Earl:

That's exactly the behavior - with a number in the cell, I'm trying to copy
the contents down, so I hold the Ctrl key, and it increments! _Now_ I find
that it's ~supposed~ to work that way??! 8>O

Okay - so for numbers I _don't_ use Ctrl, but for text I _will_. Got it!
Thanks.
Ed

 

[Bruce Sinclair]

Earl:

That's exactly the behavior - with a number in the cell, I'm trying to copy
the contents down, so I hold the Ctrl key, and it increments! _Now_ I find
that it's ~supposed~ to work that way??! 8>O

Okay - so for numbers I _don't_ use Ctrl, but for text I _will_. Got it!
Thanks.
Ed

As an aside (and IIRC ) you can make this explicit by filling the first 2
cells, then dragging the 2 cells down.
eg 2 in the first cell and 2 in the second and dragging both will copy 2
and not increment.
In fact, this is a great way to repeat any pattern (1,2,3 ... or whatever).