Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Entering Info into Multiple Cells.

Entering Info into Multiple Cells

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 30, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


3

It is not unusual to enter the same information in multiple cells in Excel. If you have such a need, you might want to try this little gem:

  1. Select all the cells that will contain the information. If the cells are not contiguous, hold down the Ctrl key as you click on each cell in the set.
  2. Type the information you want to enter, but don't press Enter.
  3. Press Ctrl+Enter.

Presto! Every cell you selected contains the same information.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11338) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Entering Info into Multiple Cells.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Sorting Letters and Numbers

Sorting information in a worksheet can be confusing when Excel applies sorting rules of which you are unaware. This is ...

Discover More

Copying Formulas using a Pattern

Copying formulas from one cell to another is quite intuitive in Excel—unless you want the copied formulas to follow ...

Discover More

Combining Multiple Rows in a Column

Do you need to concatenate the contents of a range of cells in the same column? Here's a formula and a handy macro to ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Entering Numbers in Excel

Enter information into a cell, and Excel needs to figure out what type of information it is. Here's how Excel interprets ...

Discover More

Setting a Length Limit on Cells

Limiting what can be entered in a cell can be an important part of developing a worksheet that other people use. Here are ...

Discover More

Highlighting the Rows of Selected Cells

If you lose your place on the screen quite often, you might find it helpful to have not just a single cell highlighted, ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 - 7?

2021-11-03 06:49:43

Mike D.

If you have data in a cell already this will work.
Select the destination cells then select the source cell last.
Press F2 followed by the Ctrl+Enter and voila.


2021-10-30 16:05:31

Tomek

You have to remember that if you used formulas with references to other cells, the formulas will behave the same way as if you copied them from the source cell to all other selected cells. So absolute references will not be changed, but relative ones will be adjusted.


2021-10-30 11:38:26

Rob V.

Wow, I knew there had to be a way to do this, but I couldn't figure it out!

I just happen to have a spreadsheet that can use this sort of editing, so good timing!


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.