AutoComplete & Custom Lists

AutoComplete

"If Excel recognizes the pattern you're typing when you enter a sequence of characters, it will attempt to complete the pattern using a feature called AutoComplete. AutoComplete can be a major time-saver for you if you manage lists in Excel or find that you are entering the same values or functions over and over again. If you activate the AutoComplete feature while entering data, review the insertion and, if it makes sense to you, press [Enter] and move on." *

*Halvorson, Michael and Michael Young: Running Microsoft Office 97, Standard and Professional. Microsoft Press, 1997.

Pick From List...

The Pick from List... command lets you select an entry from a list of existing items. For example, if you need to enter a department name in a particular field, right click in the cell where you want to enter it, select Pick From List... from the context menu, then click on the item you want to insert into the selected cell (this only works if the data you want to insert has already been entered once in the same column).

You can turn AutoComplete on or off by selecting Options from the Tools menu, selecting the Edit tab, then either adding or removing the check mark next to Enable AutoComplete for cell values.

Custom Lists

You can create a custom list from an existing items that you've listed on a worksheet, or you can type the list from scratch.

If you've already entered the list of items you want to use as a series:

1. Select the list (highlight it) on the worksheet.
    
2. In the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Custom Lists tab.
    
3. To use the selected list, click Import.

To create a new list:

1. Select New list in the Custom lists box.
    
2. Type the entries in the List entries box, beginning with the first entry. Press [ENTER] after each entry.
    
3. When the list is complete, click Add.

Note: A custom list can contain text or text mixed with numbers. To create a custom list that contains only numbers, such as part numbers:

1. First select enough empty cells to contain the list (or better yet, highlight the entire column).
    
2. On the Format menu, click Cells, and then click the Number tab. Apply the Text format to the empty cells, and then type the list of numbers in the formatted cells.

Using the Copy Handle to Insert Your Custom List

Once you've created and saved your custom list, it's simple to use. Just type in an item from the list, move the mouse pointer over the copy handle (see below) until it turns into a crosshair, then click and drag through the range where you want to insert the list.

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