Use Excel's Autofill to generate a series of dates - TechRepublic
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Use Excel’s Autofill to generate a series of dates

Isn’t it frustrating to do a task manually in Microsoft Excel when you know there must be a faster and easier method for accomplishing your goal? One Excel feature that will save you time is Autofill, which can generate a series of dates for your worksheets.

Written By
maryannrichardson
maryannrichardson
Jan 31, 2006
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Microsoft Excel 2002 and 2003’s Smart Tag feature makes it
easy to insert a series of dates into a worksheet. For example, suppose you
want to keep track of the total daily donations that come into your
organization during the work week. You can generate a series of dates that
includes weekdays only by following these steps:

  1. Enter
    the beginning date of 10/3/05 in Cell B3.
  2. Drag
    B3’s Fill handle while pressing the right mouse button to B50.
  3. Click
    the Smart Tag and select Fill Weekdays.

You can also use Autofill to
generate a series of dates for entering total donations on a monthly basis—just
choose Fill Months after clicking the Smart Tag.

To track donations on a weekly basis, say every Friday,
follow these steps:

  1. Enter
    the date of the first Friday of the month (e.g., 10/7/05) into cell B3.
  2. Enter
    the formula =B3+7 into B4.
  3. Drag
    B4’s Fill handle down to B50.

You’ll be amazed by how much time (and work) Autofill will save you over the course of a month.

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