The fill handle with text and numbers

The Fill handle also allows you to carry over patterns containing both text and numbers.

When you use this feature (with the same right square sign as usual - bottom right corner of the active cell), the last number in each cell will be increased by 1 for every cell you carry over.

For instance, put in “Excel 1” and drag it over one cell, either horizontally or vertically. Fill will create “Excel 2” in the adjacent cell. Do it for 10 cells and Fill will count up to 11.

You can do this with any combination of text and numbers, although remember that Excel will only count up the last number in each cell. For instance,if you put in “Excel 5 count 2” and Fill it over, it will increase the initial “2” accordingly, not the “5”.