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Fill Lists Made to Order
Fill Lists Made to Order right, as shown in Figure 13-6. You can then edit
the individual entries in the List Entries box if
necessary. (This is where you would type the
Excel is quite capable of generating a new series on entries for a new list that you create from
its own when the initial entry in the series (or first scratch before clicking the Add button.)
two entries, when using an increment besides one)
contains a numerical component that it can increase 5. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.
or decrease. However, to have the program generate
a series containing no numerical elements (such as After creating a custom list, you can then generate
the list across any row or up or down any column
the days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
and so on), Excel needs to know beforehand all the simply by entering the initial entry in a cell and then
dragging the Fill handle in one of the four directions.
items in the series and their order.
Figure 13-7 illustrates how this works. Here, I gener-
To do this, you create a custom list. When creating a ated the custom list of cities created earlier from a
custom list, you can have Excel generate it from a range of cell entries (refer to Figure 13-6) in a new
cell range in a worksheet that already contains the worksheet by entering the first city (Seattle) in cell
items, or you can enter the items manually. I suggest A2 and then dragging the Fill handle to cell F2.
that you have Excel create a new list from existing
entries in the spreadsheet whenever possible. That
way, you have a chance to proof the entries in the
worksheet before you turn them into a custom list.

To create a custom list from existing worksheet
entries, follow these steps:

1. Enter the entries for the custom list in their
proper sequence down a column or across a
row of the active worksheet.
2. Select the cell range containing the entries for
the custom list.
3. Choose Tools➪Options to open the Options
dialog box and then select the Custom Lists tab.
When you open the Custom Lists tab after select- • Figure 13-6: Creating a custom AutoFill list from a range
ing the cell range with these entries, this cell of existing entries.
range (in absolute values) appears in the Import
List from Cells text box. If this range is not cor-
rect or you forgot to select it before opening the
Options dialog box, click in this text box and
then select the range in the worksheet. (Excel
automatically collapses the Options dialog box
as you drag through the cells.)
4. Click the Import button.
As soon as you click Import, Excel adds the list
to the Custom Lists pane on the left and displays • Figure 13-7: Generating the series of cities across row 2.
all its entries in the List Entries pane on the