Excel 2016 Autofill not working with text

Question

I am trying to use the autofill function in Excel 2016, but it it doesnt seem to be working correctly- it only completes the numbers sequence, but I cant  make it work with text series. For example when I enter 1, 2 and drag it down it automatically fills in the sequence 1,2,3 etc. However when I try weekdays or months it just copies the data selected, fill series option is not available in the drop down list, flash fill does nothing. 

 

I've checked in the advanced options that "enable fill handle and cell drag and drop" and "automatically flash fill" are enabled. Any ideas how to resolve this?

Answer 1

Jan, Feb, Mar...

January, February, March..

A. B, C, D....

a, b, c, d...

These are controlled by Custom List and Excel doesn't do it automatically.

Open File > Options > Advanced > Go down to General section > Edit Custom List > Here your list should be stored. I am attaching Custom List of my Excel installation

Excel understands only numbers not texts. Hence, 1, 2, 3 etc are filled in.

Dates are numbers in the background, hence they are filled in.

Put 3/1/18 in a cell. Drag it with right click and you will get all options related to Date.

Note - I recall in earlier versions of Excel, days of week, month etc. were already filled in the custom list. Hence, people didn't feel that they need to put this manually now.

Answer 2

Hi Ekaterina17,

If you type Monday in A1 and Tuesday in A2, then select both and drag down, is Excel not auto filling correctly - same for Months - enter January, February and drag down?

Answer 3

I just had a thought:

When you drag down, a box appears at the bottom right with an arrow, click that, is it set to 'Fill Series'?

Answer 4

Thanks a lot, it was indeed the custom list.