What is Fill Handle in Microsoft Excel

[Chandranath]

Hello , i have microsoft Excel Installed along with the ms office , in my Windows Xp computer ,Can you Tell me What is the Fill Handle option in Microsoft Excel ?, For what purpose Do We use these option, please Help Thanks in advance

[ThoMas321]

By dragging the fill handle of a cell, you can copy the contents of that cell to other cells in the same row or column. If the cell contains a number, date, or time period that Excel can project in a series, the values are incremented instead of copied. For example, if the cell contains "January," you can quickly fill in other cells in a row or column with "February," "March," and so on. You can also create a custom fill series for frequently used text entries, such as your company's sales regions.

[kattman]

fill handle is Use to fill data
You can use the Series command (point to Fill on the Edit menu, and then click Series) to fill data into worksheet cells. You can also have Excel automatically continue a series of numbers, number and text combinations, dates, or time periods, based on a pattern that you establish. However, to quickly fill in several types of data series, you can select cells and drag the fill handle .

• The fill handle is displayed by default, but you can hide it.
• On the Tools menu, click Options.
• On the Edit tab, do one of the following: To hide the fill handle, clear the Allow cell drag and drop check box.
• To display the fill handle, select the Allow cell drag and drop check box.

To avoid replacing existing data when you drag the fill handle, make sure that the Alert before overwriting cells check box is selected. If you don't want to get a message about overwriting nonblank cells, you can clear this check box.

Note After you drag the fill handle, the Auto Fill Options button appears so that you can choose how the selection is filled. For example, you can choose to fill just cell formats by clicking Fill Formatting Only, or you can choose to fill just the contents of a cell by clicking Fill Without Formatting. If you don't want to display the Auto Fill Options button every time you drag the fill handle, you can turn it off. On the Tools menu, click Options, click the Edit tab, and then clear the Show Paste Options buttons check box.

[JonathanD]

By default, the fill handle and drag-and-drop editing is turned on in Excel so that you can drag the mouse to move and copy cells by doing the following:

• Move a cell or range of cells by positioning the mouse pointer on a cell or cell range border so that it changes to a move pointer , and then dragging the cell to another location.
• Copy a cell or range of cells by holding down CTRL while you position the mouse pointer on a cell or cell range border so that it changes to a copy pointer , and then dragging the cell or range of cells to another location.
• Drag the fill handle to copy data or to fill adjacent cells with a series of data.

You can turn this option on or off as needed by doing the following:

• Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Excel Options.
• In the Advanced category, under Editing options, select or clear the Enable fill handle and cell drag-and-drop check box to turn drag-and-drop editing on or off.

Note To help prevent replacing existing data when you drag the fill handle, make sure that the Alert before overwriting cells check box is selected. If you do not want Excel to display a message about overwriting non-blank cells, you can clear this check box.