The fill handle and Fill Series in Grid by Zaweba
Drag the fill handle in Grid by Zaweba to continue numbers, dates, weekdays and months, double-click to fill down, or use Fill Series for growth and dates.
Typing the same thing, or the next thing, down a column is the kind of chore a spreadsheet should do for you. In Grid by Zaweba the fill handle, the small square at the bottom right corner of a selection, does most of it, and Fill Series covers the cases a drag can't guess.
Dragging the fill handle
Select a cell and drag the fill handle down or across. What happens depends on what's in the cell. A number followed by another number continues the step between them, so 5 and 10 become 15, 20, 25. A date continues day by day. A weekday name continues through the week, a month name through the year. Text that ends in a number, such as Item 1 or Week 1, counts up: Item 2, Item 3 and so on. A formula is copied, with its references adjusting as it goes.
That last point is where most of the value lies. Write a formula once at the top of a column, drag it down, and every row gets its own version pointing at its own row. References with dollar signs stay fixed, which is why F4 matters: pin the reference to a rate or a total, leave the row references free, and the fill does the right thing.
Double-click to fill down
Dragging a formula down a thousand rows is tedious. Double-click the fill handle instead and Grid fills the formula down as far as the data in the neighbouring column goes. It's the fastest way to add a calculated column next to a long list, and it stops at the right place without overshooting.
If it stops short, there's probably a blank cell in the neighbouring column. Fill the gap or fill the rest by hand.
Ctrl+D and Ctrl+R
For keyboard users, Ctrl+D fills down: select a range with the cell you want to copy at the top and press it, and the top cell's contents fill the rest. Ctrl+R does the same to the right from the leftmost cell. These copy exactly, formulas adjusting as usual, rather than continuing a series, which is often what you want for a block of identical formulas.
Fill Series for more control
Fill Series takes over when you want to say exactly what kind of sequence to build rather than let a drag guess. A linear series adds the same amount each time, like a drag but set deliberately. A growth series multiplies by the same amount each time, which suits compound projections or doubling sequences. A date series steps through dates, useful for building calendars, schedules and payment plans.
A good way to use it is to select the whole range you want filled first, with the starting value in the top cell, and then choose Fill Series. The sequence then fills exactly that range and no further, which is tidier than dragging hundreds of rows for a year of dates.
Jobs it makes quick
A budget with twelve month headings across the top takes one typed month and a drag. A numbered list of invoice lines takes two numbers and a double-click. A schedule of weekly meetings takes one date, Fill Series and a step of seven days. A price list with a markup column takes one formula and a double-click.
When the fill guesses wrong
Sometimes you want a value repeated, not continued. Copy it with Ctrl+D or paste rather than dragging. If a drag produces the wrong pattern, Undo puts it back in one step; Grid keeps 100 steps of undo for everything. And if a filled formula gives odd results further down, look at its references: a range that should have been fixed with dollar signs has probably slid down with the fill.
The fill handle is one of the small tools that make Grid by Zaweba quick to work in. A few minutes learning how it reads your first cells saves a great deal of typing.
