Excel Tip of the Day
Create a series from one starting value (Excel 97/2000/2001/2002)
The fill handle is the small square found in the lower-right corner of the cell selector. Dragging this handle to other cells can perform many functions. Although it serves many purposes, Excel's fill handle is an especially convenient tool for sequentially numbering adjacent cells. However, if you currently use the fill handle this way, you may not be using it as efficiently as possible if the sequential numbers increment by one.
Typically, you manually enter the first two values in the series so that Excel can figure out what increment to use. For example, you might enter 5 in cell A1 and 10 in cell A2. Then, you select both cells, range A1:A2, and drag the fill handle down to create a series of numbers that increment by five.
If your series increments in units of one, there's no reason to enter data into a second cell. However, you can't just drag the fill handle--doing so will simply copy your starting value to all of the cells. To increment from your starting value by one, enter the first number in the series and re-select the cell. Then, drag the fill handle while holding down the [Ctrl] key (use the [Alt] key on a Mac). Doing so will force Excel to treat the new data as a series, instead of a copy of the original value.
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