3.7. Timesaving Data Entry Tricks

There’s a lot more to working with spreadsheets than typing in a cell, hitting Tab, and then typing in the next cell. The following sections show you different ways to work with data more efficiently.

3.7.1. Auto-Fill

Entering data in a spreadsheet can get repetitive. Auto-Fill cuts down on the drudgery with one-click copying and pasting, so you don’t have to type the same content over and over a million times. For example, imagine you use a spreadsheet to schedule employees’ hours, one sheet per month. When a new week rolls around, you don’t want to have to type in everyone’s name in column A all over again. That’s where Auto-Fill comes in. Auto-Fill lets you select a range of cells, and pop their content right into a group of adjacent cells. Here’s how: