Why does not auto fill work, sometimes?

[kevs]

When you start to type, it's auto fill , right, that flashes a previous
word. It was working, and then sometimes does not work. Did it stop
working because there were blank spaces in some of the rows? Thanks.


OS 10.3.8
Office 2004

 

[JE McGimpsey]

When you start to type, it's auto fill , right, that flashes a previous
word. It was working, and then sometimes does not work. Did it stop
working because there were blank spaces in some of the rows? Thanks.

You're referring to AutoComplete. AutoFill allows you to copy cells
according to a pattern (e.g., a linear or growth series).

From XL Help ("Quickly fill in repeated entries in a column"):

 

[kevs]

Thanks again JE:
I find that real baffling, that just because your column may have a gap, all
the other entries above are now null and void for this? Excel isn't smart
enough to deal with a gap or two?
Thanks.

You're referring to AutoComplete. AutoFill allows you to copy cells
according to a pattern (e.g., a linear or growth series).

From XL Help ("Quickly fill in repeated entries in a column"):

OS 10.3.8
Office 2004

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I find that real baffling, that just because your column may have a gap, all
the other entries above are now null and void for this? Excel isn't smart
enough to deal with a gap or two?

It's more a design issue. I suspect there are those who use blanks to
separate groups of data, and would get irritated if AutoComplete tried
to match, say, 45,000 similarly-named items in a list broken up by
blanks.