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Moving and Copying Data (Continued)

Tip:

To quickly copy a data to an adjacent cell:

1. Select the cell containing the data.

The fill handle is displayed as a small black square in the bottom right corner of the cell outline.

2. Click on the fill handle and, holding down your mouse button, drag to the adjacent cell. When that cell is highlighted, release the mouse button.

The data is copied to the adjacent cell.

This is useful when you need to fill many cells with the same data, since you can drag the fill handle across an entire range:

The data is copied to all the cells in the selected range.

In the illustration above, the cell being copied contained a formula that adds the values from the cells above. When the cell was copied, the formula was pasted across a range of cells-not the value displayed in the original cell.

Excel adjusted the cell references in the formula for each new column, so that the values entered in the cells above were totaled. When you copy a formula, Excel adjusts the cell references by the number of rows and columns the formula was moved. So, for example, you can enter one formula that totals the values in a column, and copy the formula to many different columns without having to change the cell references for each column-Excel does it automatically. This is explained in more detail in Absolute and Relative Cell References.

Note:

Excel does not change the references when you move a formula.