Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. 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: Copying Cells to Fill a Range.

Copying Cells to Fill a Range

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 11, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365


5

Excel provides a pair of nifty shortcut keys that can be used to copy cells down and to the right. For instance, let's say you want to copy the contents of cell C3 to the fifteen cells just below it. All you need to do is select the sixteen cells (making sure that cell C3 is the top cell in the selection) and then press Ctrl+D. Cell C3 is copied to all the other cells below it.

Likewise, if you want to copy cells to the right, you can simply make a selection and press Ctrl+R. The value of the left-most cell in the selection will be copied to its right, filling out the selected range.

You can combine these two shortcuts to fill an entire range of cells. Let's say that you have a value in cell C3 and you want it copied to the range C3:M24. All you need to do is select that range and then press Ctrl+D and immediately press Ctrl+R. The first command copies the first row downward, which means that C3:C24 now contains the desired value. When you press Ctrl+R, everything in C3:C24 is copied to the right so that the entire range of C3:M24 is filled.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10261) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Copying Cells to Fill a Range.

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

Inserting a Document's Path

You can use the FILENAME field to insert a document's filename and, optionally, the path to that filename. However, if ...

Discover More

Merging to Individual Files

The mail-merge feature in Word is a fast, easy way to create form letters addressed to many different people. Sometimes, ...

Discover More

Technique for Adding a Text Box to an Envelope

Text boxes can be a great design feature to use in laying out a document. You may want to add one to an envelope, ...

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)

Ensuring Rows and Columns are Empty

Before you go about deleting rows and columns helter-skelter, it is a good idea to determine if there is anything in the ...

Discover More

Controlling the Automatic Copying of Formulas

When you add a new row of data to the bottom of the data of a worksheet, Excel may (or may not) copy formulas downward to ...

Discover More

Not Enough Resources to Delete Rows and Columns

Few things are as frustrating as trying to delete rows or columns and having Excel tell you that you can't perform the ...

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 two more than 7?

2024-09-11 07:26:50

Alan Cannon

An easier way to fill the range C3:M24 would be to select the range beginning with cell C3, then press F2 to enter edit mode then press Ctrl + Enter.


2024-09-11 06:34:48

Mark E Watson

Hymie - The result of Ctrl-D/Ctrl-R versus the fill square is the same. For me the difference is keyboard versus mouse. I like to think that I'm more productive sticking to keyboard shortcuts, but your mileage may vary ;-)

Alan Cannon - Wow! Now that's a fill technique I don't remember ever hearing! Thanks for sharing.


2021-03-01 10:39:38

Villunia

Just tried this trick and got excited. Thanks!


2021-03-01 09:15:28

Hymie

What is the preference of this method over just grabbing the little square at the bottom right corner and dragging it to the cells you want to copy into?


2021-02-27 08:05:58

Alan Cannon

I often use a different method for copying left, right, up, down, or a combination thereof.
1. Select the range of cells you want filled with the same value, but be sure to click the original cell 1st.
2. Press F2 to enter edit mode, then press Ctrl+Enter together.
This even works if the selected range is blank. Just select the range to be filled, type what you want into the active cell, then press the Ctrl+Enter combination.


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.