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How to use the Auto Fill Options button in Excel

Article ID: 291359 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q291359

SUMMARY

When you fill in data based on adjacent cells by dragging the fill handle in Microsoft Excel, the Auto Fill Options button is displayed just below and to the right of your filled selection. When you click the Auto Fill Options button, a list of options appears that allows you to choose to fill the cells with text or data, and whether or not to include the format of the initial selection or to copy only the format.

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Picture of Auto Fill Options list with "Copy Cells" selected.

The Auto Fill Options button is also displayed after you select the AutoFill option in the Series dialog box. To show the Series dialog box, use one of the following procedures, as appropriate for the version of Excel that you are running:

In Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Excel 2010, click the Home tab, and then click Fill in the Editing group.
In Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and in earlier versions of Excel, point to Fill on the Edit menu, and then click Series.

The options that are available depend on the type of content in the cells (text or numbers) and on the format of the data. You can use the Series command to find the AutoFill option and other options.

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MORE INFORMATION

To display the list of Auto Fill options, click the Auto Fill Options button. The list of options varies according to the type of data: text and formulas, numbers, months, days of the week, and dates. The full list of options that may be available is as follows:

Copy Cells
Fill Series
Fill Formatting Only
Fill Without Formatting
Fill Days
Fill Weekdays
Fill Months
Fill Years

The same eight options are also included on the shortcut menu that appears when you right-click and drag the fill handle to adjacent cells. The Auto Fill Options button is not displayed when you use this method.

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REFERENCES

For more information about how to use various types of smart tags, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

291357

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291357/ )

How to use the AutoCorrect Options buttons in Excel

291358

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291358/ )

How to use the Paste Options button in Excel

291361

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291361/ )

How to use the Error Checking Options button in Excel 2002 or in Excel 2003

291363

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291363/ )

How to Use the "Insert Options" Button in Excel 2002 or in Excel 2003