Google Sheets is packed with convenient shortcuts that allow you to work faster and with more precision. One of these features is Google Sheets Fill Down.
Fill Down is an autofill setting in Google Sheets that you can apply to a column (or a row) based on the existing pattern.
In this article, we will show you how to use Fill Down in Google Sheets, along with some practical examples to use it effectively.
How to Fill Down in Google Sheets
Here’s how to fill down in Google Sheets:
- Select the cells with the data.
- Place your cursor on the fill handle icon (the blue circle at the bottom right of the selection).
- Hold down the left mouse click or trackpad and drag downwards to the desired range.
The filling that will be done depends on what you already had in the initially selected cells. We will see some examples later in this article.
Now, let’s see what a fill handle is.
What is a Fill Handle?
When you select a cell or a range of cells in Google Sheets, you will notice that the bottom right corner of the selection has a small circle (as shown below).
You can use this to instruct Google Sheets to automatically fill a formula, numbers, or even text strings.
For example, suppose you want to quickly get a series of 100 numbers (i.e., 1, 2, 3… and so on). While you could do it manually, that would be time-consuming.
Instead, you can use the Fill Down feature in Google Sheets to get this series in a matter of seconds. Google Sheets can automatically fill the numbers based on the previous numbers.
When you place the cursor on this small blue circle, the cursor transforms into a plus icon.
This indicates that if you click with the left mouse button (or trackpad), the fill handle will be selected, and you can use it to fill the data down in Google Sheets.
At this point, if you hold down the left mouse click and drag the fill handle downwards, you will notice that it automatically fills the cells with certain values.
The values that are filled will depend on what you already had in the initially selected cells (we will discuss this in more detail in the examples covered later in this tutorial).
Here are some examples where you can use Fill Down in Google Sheets to be more efficient and finish your work faster (each of these examples will also be explained in detail later in this tutorial):
- Get a series of numbers (with a specified gap between each number)
- Get the names of the 12 months (or the names of months and years)
- Copy the formula
Now, let’s take a look at a few examples where you can use the fill handle to quickly fill data/formulas and save time in Google Sheets.
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