Excel’s AutoFill feature relies on the program’s ability to recognize patterns in the data that you enter. For example, if you type “Week 1″ in a cell, you can have the program automatically fill in “Week 2″, “Week 3″, etc. by using the AutoFill handle. This is located in the bottom right of the cell. As the cursor moves over it, the cursor changes appearance to a plus sign (+). When it does so you simply click, hold, drag in any direction and Excel will pick up the pattern and extrapolate it to create automatic data entries.

Whenever you make use of the AutoFill handle Excel displays the AutoFill Options drop down menu below the last cell which has been generated. If the program has not entered the required data, you can choose one of the entries in the AutoFill Options so that it knows what you actually meant it to do. For example, choosing Copy Cells, gives you an exact copy of what was in the original cell.

Excel is also capable of automatically entering an arbitrary series of data using a feature called Custom Lists. There are certain lists built into Excel, for example, the months of the year. To use the AutoFill feature, you need to enter the first value in the list, for example, “January” or “Jan”. Next, you drag the AutoFill handle (located in the bottom right of the cell) in any direction to have Excel automatically enter the rest of the custom list.

In addition to these built-in lists Excel allows you to create your own custom lists. For example, suppose we worked for a company that has branches in several towns. It’s almost certain that we would list these towns quite frequently in our spreadsheets. We could therefore save ourselves considerable time by setting this up as a custom list.

To create a custom list, simply select some cells that contain the information. Next, choose Excel options by clicking on the Office button. Click “Edit Custom Lists” in the “Popular” tab. Excel lists the contents of the cells that were highlighted. To set up the selected data as a custom list, simply click on the “Import” button.

This custom list can now be used in any of our worksheets, not just the sheet that contained the original information. Whenever we need out list, we simply type the first value. We then use the AutoFill handle to generate the remaining entries. When using AutoFill, you can drag in any direction and you don’t have to start with the first element in the custom list.

You can also create custom lists directly in the “Custom Lists” dialog box. Simply click on the “List Entries” button and enter the elements separated by a carriage return. When you have finished entering your list, click on the Add button.

To delete a custom list, simply click on it and click on the “Delete” button. Excel verifies that you want to delete the list and when you click “OK”, the list is gone.