Excel Help - How to Copy Patterns in Excel 2013
In this video you’ll learn how to copy patterns in Excel. If you want to enter values that form part of a series, such as odd or even numbers or days, months or years, you can do this easily with the Autofill function.
Start by selecting the first cell in your table.
Type a value. In this video Excel will recognize a pattern of ascending numbers starting with 1 so I’ll type 1 here.
To establish a pattern, type the next value in the cell below it. In this example, type 2.
Select the range of cells that contain the first two values of your pattern.
Click on the small square at the bottom of the selected area, this is the fill handle, and drag it down.
Excel recognizes the pattern and applies it when it fills each new cell.
You can use this function for more complex patterns such as even or odd numbers. Moreover, Excel will recognize some patters if you only enter one value. For instance, if you type “January” in A1 and drag down to A12, the program will fill the cells with all the months of the year.
If you want to suppress the pattern recognition function, the trick is to simply press and hold down Ctrl when you select several cells.
