Select 1 and 2, then drag the fill handle down. Excel counts on: 3, 4, 5... It does the same with days of the week.
Typing into a cell
Click a cell.
Type. For example, type Milk.
Press Enter to go down one cell. Press Tab to go right one cell.
Words line up on the left. Numbers line up on the right. That is how you can tell Excel sees a number.
Fixing a cell
To replace everything in a cell, click it and just type the new thing. Press Enter.
To fix only part of it, double-click the cell (or click it and press F2). A blinking line appears. Use the arrow keys, fix the mistake, and press Enter.
To empty a cell, click it and press Delete.
Made a mistake? Press Ctrl+Z to undo. Press it again to undo more. Ctrl+Y brings it back (redo).
Mac: On a Mac, the edit key is Ctrl+U instead of F2. Undo is Cmd+Z and redo is Cmd+Y.
Copy, cut, and paste
Click the cell you want to copy. To pick many cells, click the first one, hold the mouse button, and drag.
Press Ctrl+C to copy. A moving dotted line appears around it.
Click where you want it to go.
Press Ctrl+V to paste.
To move something instead of copying it, use Ctrl+X (cut) in step 2. You can also use the Copy, Cut and Paste buttons on the Home tab, at the far left.
Tip: Press Esc to make the dotted line go away when you are done pasting.
The fill handle: Excel's magic square
When you click a cell, look at its bottom right corner. There is a tiny square. That is the fill handle.
Type 1 in A1. Type 2 in A2.
Select both cells (click A1 and drag down to A2).
Point at the tiny square in the bottom right corner. The mouse turns into a thin black plus sign.
Hold the mouse button and drag down to A10. Let go.
Excel fills in 3, 4, 5, all the way to 10.
AutoFill for days and months
Type Monday in a cell.
Drag the fill handle down 6 cells.
Excel fills in Tuesday, Wednesday, and the rest of the week. It works for January, February, and so on too. It even works for Jan, Feb, Mar.
Tip: If you drag one number, like 5, Excel copies 5 again and again. To count up, type two numbers first so Excel sees the pattern.
Tip: Dragging the fill handle on a formula copies the formula to the other rows. You will use this a lot in Lesson 4.
Make a column wider
Sometimes words get cut off because the column is too narrow.
Go to the top, to the letters.
Point at the line between two letters, like between A and B. The mouse turns into a two-sided arrow.
Double-click. The column becomes just wide enough for the longest thing in it.
You can also click and drag that line to make it as wide as you want.
Wrap text
If a cell has a long sentence, you can make it show on several lines inside the cell.
Click the cell.
On the Home tab, click Wrap Text.
Tip: To start a new line inside a cell yourself, press Alt+Enter while typing. On a Mac, it is Option+Return.
Insert or delete a row
Right-click the row number on the left, like 4.
Click Insert to add an empty row above it, or Delete to remove it.
The same works for columns: right-click a column letter.
Try it
Go to the sheet 2 Shopping List. In column A, fill in the missing items: type Eggs in A6 and Bread in A7. In C2 type 1 and in C3 type 2, then use the fill handle to count down to row 10. In E2 type Monday and drag it down to E8. Finally, double-click the line between column letters A and B to fit the words.