Discussion on:

Office challenge: Can you get Excel's AutoFill feature to fill a range with just workdays - excluding Saturday and Sunday?

Build a custom list MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI. Works fine as long as you don't mind the shortened form of day's name

with the alphabet. I had a situation where I was manually entering serial numbers into a spreadsheet and they ended in letters in alphabetic order.

That seems like cheating to me.

I read the question as meaning, I've already selected the first cell, I'm just about to click the fill handle and I decide I want only week days. I then select some option to get that result.

Setting it up ahead of time is great, but doesn't seem in the spirit of the question.

Though having said that I often get the context of these questions wrong. I always read a how-do-I that way.

As "how do I modify the actions I'm about to take to get this alternative result" rather than "how do I configure things so I get this result in the future".

The assumption is also that I'm not going to modify the normal behaviour for future actions, but select an alternative this time I carry out the action.

For example. If I create a custom fill list for weekdays, then when I want all days starting on a Monday, I can't get it as Excel will see my custom list instead. That's what I mean about not modifying the normal behaviour.

You're right about the question -- I was specifically referring to using the AutoFill handle, but of course, other solutions are always welcome. Someone might have a better way to do something than the one I have in mind! So, by all means, feel free to provide a solution even if it doesn't seem to be exactly the one I'm looking for!

Type Monday or the day you want to start with in a cell. Drag the fill handle as far as you like. At the end an 'autofill' options box will pop up. Click on that, and you'll see .... Fill Weekdays.

Thanks! I never tried that. Great time saver.

Hi, I actually tried that before I saw your post, but it didn't work for me. This happened in both (07) Windows and 08 (Mac). Can't understand what happened and "Help" is so wanting for real info but plan to keep trying to figure it out.

As the next post tells you, drag with the RIGHT mouse button. When you release the button you get the shortcut menu, and from this select Weekdays. Don't think too many other posts mentioned the right mouse button. It is actually worth a try in many situations because of the shortcut menu you get when you release the mouse button.

The left button works fine, if the option is enabled. Here's how to check:

From the Tools menu, select Options.
Click the Edit tab.
Make sure the Show Paste Options Buttons is checked.
Click OK.

If this setting is checked, the left button displays the Auto Fill Options. If this setting is disabled, the left button won't, but the right button will -- so you can disable it and then force it only when you choose.

I would use the autofill tool to insert the days click on the autofill options button and choose fill weekdays.

Just type in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, then you can autofill to the right no problem. Or you can do that twice and autofill downward no problem.

Auto fill the Mon thru Fri, click on the Ctrl Key in Windows or the Alt-Op key in Mac, and continue to fill.