When you're setting up a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that contains date information, you'll speed your task if you let Excel do the tedious work of filling in columns of individual date entries. Microsoft Excel's AutoFill feature comes in handy for any process that relies on establishing a single cell with the proper formatting and content type and then populating other cells with a sequence of related information. You can select options after you've applied AutoFill to populate cells with date information.
Click on the column header to select the location for your date information. In the Home tab on the Excel ribbon, click on the arrow at the bottom right corner of the Number section. Select "Date" from list of number-format categories and then apply the date style you want. Click the "OK" button to close the Format Cells dialog box.
Double-click on the initial cell at the top of the column to select it. Enter your first date in the initial cell in the column. Press the "Enter" key to confirm your data. Drag the right edge of the column header to the right to widen the column if you chose a date format that includes the day of the week.
Place your cursor over the lower right corner of the cell that contains your initial date entry. When your cursor changes to a black plus sign, drag downward on this fill handle till you reach the bottom of the area you plan to fill with data.
Click on the unlabeled AutoFill button that appears below and to the right of the last cell over which you dragged the fill handle. The drop-down AutoFill menu opens, allowing you to choose from its list of seven options. If you select the "Fill Series" radio button, Excel fills the cells with dates that increment by one day, starting from the date you typed.
Use AutoFill to fill a column with the names of days or months, to propagate the formatting from your starter cell without incrementing its data or to increment the data without applying the first cell's formatting. All these options appear in the AutoFill menu.
- If you use AutoFill to populate a date series but want to use the date formatting from another cell, use "Fill Series" to complete your data. Select and copy the cell whose formatting you prefer and then select your date cells and choose "Paste Special" to access the "Formatting" option.
- To increment a date series that includes only every other day, type your first two dates in consecutive column cells and use AutoFill to propagate the pattern you've defined.
- If you're filling a column with dates generated by an Excel function, AutoFill won't work in situations in which you want each cell to reference one specific cell location. Type the cell address as an absolute reference, entering a "$" before the column letter and another "$" before the row number in the cell address. For example, type "$C$27" for an absolute reference to cell C27.
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