Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Filling a Cell.

Filling a Cell

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 8, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

1

There may be times when you need to fill a cell with a particular character or group of characters. For instance, you may need to fill a cell with the characters " guess " (with the spaces) for the entire width of the cell. Excel allows you to do this very easily. It repeats the characters over and over again, regardless of the cell width. To utilize this feature, follow these steps:

  1. Type the characters that you want repeated in the cell.
  2. Choose Cells from the Format menu. Excel displays the Format Cells dialog box.
  3. Make sure the Alignment tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The Alignment tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

  4. Use the Horizontal drop-down list to select the Fill option.
  5. Click on OK.

Excel repeats whatever you typed in the cell, until the entire cell is filled. For instance, if you typed two characters, then those two characters are repeated over the width of the cell.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2761) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Filling a Cell.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is six less than 6?

2019-06-10 10:37:52

PJEF

I cannot get this to work at all. I am using Excel on an iMac. In the "format cell" dialog box, there is no "Text Direction" choice, just the angle degrees that you want the text to run. AND when I select "fill", no matter what choice I select, it either does nothing or it clears the cell.

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