This month’s column was inspired by a couple of recent Excel courses I presented which left the delegates gasping in awe (okay, a bit of artistic licence here; there were a couple of “wows” and a “well I never...”). Suffice to say, the first tip can be a real time saver when filling a series of data, especially dates. The 2nd tip (the Excel “secret”) leads on from this to show you how to get even more flexibility when filling a data series. As always, the features covered here are based on Excel 2003 however most can still be found in other versions. For more information, please contact +61 2 9080 4050, edinfo@iir.com.au , or visit: http://bit.ly/iired

1. E-TIPS
Finance, Valuation, Risk & Modelling
Change Your Life with Excel The cells are now completed with a date series
st
commencing 1 January 2009 incrementing by 1 day.
Getting Your Fill
By Leigh Drake
Director
Arc Business Processes
www.arcbusiness.com.au
W elcome to Change Your Life with Excel.
This month’s column was inspired by a couple of
recent Excel courses I presented which left the delegates
gasping in awe (okay, a bit of artistic licence here; there
The resulting series of dates
were a couple of “wows” and a “well I never...”). Suffice to
Well that’s OK, but what if you only wanted to fill the
say, the first tip can be a real time saver when filling a
series with weekdays? Wouldn’t you now have to go
series of data, especially dates.
nd through and delete all the weekend dates? Not
The 2 tip (the Excel “secret”) leads on from this to show
surprisingly the answer to this is no.
you how to get even more flexibility when filling a data
series. What most of us might miss is the small icon which
As always, the features covered here are based on Excel lingers at the bottom right of the filled series. Click on this
2003 however most can still be found in other versions. icon to open up a whole new world of fill options (for
dates at least).
Time Saving Tip
Drag and Fill Options
You may have used the drag and fill feature in Excel to
complete a list of sequential numbers or dates. If not, the
following example shows how you can quickly complete a
series of dates.
Starting with the first date in the required series, say
st
1 January 2009:
• Select the cell containing this date
• Click and hold the fill handle (as illustrated)
while you drag in the direction you wish to fill
(usually down or to the right)
• Release the mouse button
Options revealed when clicking on the fill icon
Now simply select whether, for example, you wish to fill in
weekdays, months or years.
Unfortunately the fill options for numbers are not quite so
extensive but they will allow you to complete a series of
numbers incrementing by 1 each time:
Click and drag the fill handle at the bottom right of the cell
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2. E-TIPS
Finance, Valuation, Risk & Modelling
• Select the cell containing the start number Select this to reveal the Series dialog box.
• Click and hold the fill handle while you drag in
the direction you wish to fill
• Release the mouse button
• Select the icon
• Choose Fill Series from the menu
Alternatively, you can do this a little quicker simply by
holding the CTRL key as you drag.
NOTE
• By dragging either up or to the left the series will
decrement The Series dialog box
• To prevent a date from incrementing when While there isn’t space in this newsletter to cover all the
dragging, hold the CTRL key (this can be a bit options available, the examples below show how to
confusing since this works in the opposite complete the dialog box to fill a series with calendar
manner for numbers) quarter dates, weekly dates and numbers incrementing
by 10.
Secret Completing a Stop value prevents the series from
More Drag and Fill Options overrunning if you drag too far.
As always, those Excel programmers like to keep a few
tricks firmly up their sleeve. There are in fact even more
fill options available – you just have to know how to get at
them.
This time, instead of dragging while holding the left
mouse button, drag with the right mouse button. This
reveals a very similar menu as the previous method
except for one important addition at the bottom – the
Series option.
Filling quarter end dates up to 31 Dec 2010
Starting date
The result which stops at 31 Dec 2010
The additional Series option revealed with the right click
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3. E-TIPS
Finance, Valuation, Risk & Modelling
Filling weekly dates up to 28 Feb 2009
Starting date
The result which stops at 27 Feb 2009
Filling a number series incrementing by 10, no stop value
Well I never...!
As you can see from the screenshots there are other
options available which may also save you a bit of time
and effort.
Until next time, happy Excelling.
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