Create a custom fill series

create a custom fill series

In the preceding examples, you saw that dragging January or Monday produced a fill series, but dragging your name produced only identical copies of your name. That's because week and month names are predefined fill series.

You can define your own fill series in Excel. For example, suppose your company has nine branch offices in various cities; you could create a custom fill series consisting of the names of those cities.

To define a custom series:

1. Choose Tools > Options, and click the Custom Lists tab.
2. Click NEW LIST, and then enter the list items in the List Entries box, one per line, as shown in Figure 3-2.
3. Click OK. Your list is created.

You don't have to name a list; its name is its list members. If you choose Tools > Options and click the Custom Lists tab again, you see the list you just created.

Figure 3-2: Create a custom list.

You can also create a custom list based on data already entered in a worksheet; this saves you the trouble of retyping it. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open a worksheet that contains the data to be in the series in contiguous cells in a single row or column. Make a note of the cell range.
2. Choose Tools > Options, and click the Custom Lists tab.
3. Enter the cell range in the Import text box; or click the Select button next to the Import text box and then manually select the range and press Enter.
4. Click the Import button. The range is imported as a new custom fill series.
5. Click OK. Your list is created.

You can delete a custom fill series by selecting it on the list in the Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-2, and clicking Delete. You can't delete the predefined series that come with Excel; you can delete only series that you (or other users) created.