As with most Office programs, you can move the existing information around by copying or cutting it. However, when you copy data in Excel, you’ll need to have a blank area ready to receive the data, or else Excel will overwrite any existing data. You can also tell Excel to copy the contents of a cell to a group of adjacent cells.
Click either the Copy button (or press Ctrl+C) or the Cut button (or press Ctrl+X).
Click in the first cell of the destination, and do either of the following:Press the Enter key to paste a single copy of the content.
Click the Paste button (or press Ctrl+V) to paste one copy; move to another location, and click the Paste button again. Continue until you’ve pasted all the copies you want. Press Esc to end the copying.
- Move the mouse pointer to the bottom-right corner of the cell until the pointer turns into a cross (the Fill handle).
- Drag the Fill handle either vertically or horizontally. Note that the ScreenTip shows the value for each cell. When you release the mouse button, the selected cells are filled.
If the results aren’t what you expected, click the AutoFill Options button, select the Copy Cells option, and click outside the selection to have the contents of the first cell copied to all the other selected cells instead of creating a calculated series.
Tip
To copy only a part of the cell contents—the formatting, a comment, or a value, for example—copy the item, click where you want to put it, click the down arrow at the bottom of the Paste button, and either choose the action you want from the drop-down menu or choose Paste Special from the menu. Select the action you want from the Paste Special dialog box to paste the element you want.
Tip
You can copy in any direction—up or down, left or right. You’re not limited to copying only values—you can copy formulas too.
Tip
If you can’t drag selected cells to a new location or if the Fill handle doesn’t appear, choose Excel Options from the Office menu, click the Advanced category, and select the Enable Fill Handle And Cell Drag-And-Drop check box. (Catchy title!)
See Also
"Creating a Series" for information about having Excel insert a series of values based on the first selected cell instead of just copying the contents of that cell.