Unit 5.  Manipulating cells (III).

Copy cells using the mouse

To duplicate a range of cells to another position within the same sheet without using the clipboard, follow these next steps:

Select the cells to copy.

Situate yourself over the edge of the selection and press the CTRL tab.

Observe how the pointer transforms into.

Maintaining the CTRL tab depressed, clic on the mouse and maintain, dragging to the area where you want the range copied to.

Observe how a box appears, indicating to us where the range will be situated if we release the mouse button.

Release the mouse button when you are in the area where you want the range copied to.

Release the CTRL tab.

Copy into adjacent cells

We are now going to explain a fast method to copy into adjacent cells. This method uses autofill, and we will next explain how to use it, and what happens when the cells we are copying contain formulas.

To copy a range of cells to another position as long as this last cell is adjacent to the selection to copy, follow these next steps.

Select the cells to copy.

Situate yourself in the bottom right corner of the selection that contains a black box, this is the auto fill controller.

When situated in the refill controller the pointer converts to a black cross.

Click and maintain on the mouse, and drag to where you want to copy the range.

Observe how a box appears, indicating to us where the range is situated.

Release the mouse button when you are in the area where you want the range copied to.

After releasing the mouse button, the Auto fill options icon will appear in the bottom right corner of the copied cells.

Dropping down the button we can see the box and select the type of copying:

Note: If the auto fill controller does not appear we need to activate it by going to the Tools menu, then Options..., and then the Edit tab, where we activate the Allow drag and drop option.

When we copy cells that contain references to other cells, eg =A2+3, the formula varies depending on from where we want to copy the formula to, this is because the references contained in the cells are what we refer to as RELATIVE REFERENCES, they are relative to the cell that they are contained in.

And so if we have the formula=A2+3 in cell B3, and we copy cell B3 to cell B4, this last cell will contain the formula=A3+3. This update can be inconvenient when working, and for this reason Excel2003 has other references availible, such as ABSOLUTE and MIXED.

To indicate an absolute reference in a formula we need to put a $ sign in front of the row name and the cell column, eg =$A$2, and this way when we copy the cell to another it will never vary.

To indicate a mixed reference we need to put a $ sign in front of the row or the column, depending on what we want to fix, eg=$A2 or =A$2.

If you do not understand the references concept well, we recommend that you revise the basic part of Unit 4.

If the cells to copy do not contain formulas but rather constant values like dates or a series of numbers, Excell2003 will fill the new cells continuing the series. If you want more information on the use of the auto fill, clic here.

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