How to Insert Copied Cells Multiple Times in Excel
Excel gives you a few different ways to take the contents of one cell and place them in a number of cells throughout the spreadsheet, depending on the orientation of the copied cells to the original cell. To copy the information in a straight line down a column or along a row, use the fill handle; to copy the information to a range of cells scattered throughout the spreadsheet, use the paste feature.
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Instructions
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Fill Handle
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Open the Excel 2010 spreadsheet that has the information you want to copy. Click on the cell you want to copy.
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Move the mouse to the lower right corner of the cell where there is a small square along the border. When you move your mouse over this square, called a fill handle, the mouse pointer turns into a plus sign.
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Click and hold the mouse button over the fill handle, then drag the mouse in the direction that you want to copy the information. When you reach the last cell where you want to copy the information, release the mouse button. Excel now automatically copies the information into every cell between the first and last ones.
Paste Feature
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Open the Microsoft Excel 2010 spreadsheet that you want to work with.
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Click on the cell that you want to copy and press “Ctrl” and “C” to copy the cell’s contents to your clipboard.
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Click on the first cell where you want to paste the information. To paste the information in a range of cells, click and hold the mouse button over the first cell, then drag the mouse down to the last cell and release the button.
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Hold the “Ctrl” key and select the second cell, or group of cells, where you want to paste the information. Continue to hold “Ctrl” until you have selected every cell where you want to paste the information.
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Press “Ctrl” and “V” to paste the information into every cell you have selected.
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Tips & Warnings
To copy a cell’s contents several times, but not all at once -- and as long as you don’t copy anything else to the clipboard -- you can always press “Ctrl” and “V” to paste your copied cell’s contents to a new cell.
When using the fill handle with dates, Excel automatically increases the date as you drag the fill handle. So instead of copying “Jan” to every cell, it adds “Feb” to the next cell and “Mar” to the following one. To get around this problem, manually enter “Jan” a second time, then select both cells at once and drag the fill handle that appears.
