For those of you who have used MS Excel 2003, the easiest way to creating a series comprising of continuous values would be to enter the first two or three values of the series and use the drag handle to fill the remaining values of the series, right?
Well, Excel 2007 gives you the freedom to do away with the mouse and use keyboard alone to create a series. So, how does it work? The following steps would help you create a series with ease!
a) Enter two or three values of the series in consecutive cells (in one column)
b) Then select the number of cells which you wish to fill with values of the series (let’s say 10 in all)
c) Then, use the following shortcuts – Alt+h followed by FI and S. This means you would have to type the following one after the other:
Alt+h+FI+S
The shortcuts shown above take you to Home Tab and then to Fill Option in which Series is selected. [There are several options in the Series ( linear, growth, date, Autofill) which you could use depending on your series ]
d) This would open the following box which is shown below
e) As you can see, the values entered are in column, so the column field is selected and since the values are linear in nature so, the same option is selected.
f) There is an option by the name STEP VALUE, in this the value which appears is 10, which is the difference in the values of the series. In case, you change the value 10 to 20 in the step value option then, you would get a series which would be 10, 30, 50 …..190 in place of 10, 20, 30,….100. So, the first value of the series stays the same and the following values change. If the step value is not changed, the default value from the values entered in the original column is taken ( in this case being 10)
g) By clicking on OK, you would get the desire series.
I Hope, the post would help you in creating a series without using the mouse! More tips on using Excel 2007 effectively would follow soon, so watch out.