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So very shortly, I want a shortcut equivalent to dragging the little handle in the right-bottom in a cell-selection portion in Excel 2013 (for Windows).

There is many similar questions on the site, but either the questions or their answers are non-relevant for me and my needs, so I am going to give you specific details here of what I want to do and my constraints.

  • I want a keyboard SHORTcut (the answer "ALT+H+F+I+S+ENTER" is superfluous since it is a menu-mnemonic path and not a shortcut)
  • I want to AUTO-fill (the fill-down/right shortcuts "CTRL+D" and "CTRL+R" are not relevant since it just copies values. I am searching something like this, but the action being "autofill", not "fill")
  • I don't want to duplicate formulas, don't propose to make formulas instead of using absolute values, I want to auto fill series (numbers/dates etc...)

Since I didn't find anything during my research I suspect there is no way of doing so, but are there any way to solve this with "custom-shortcuts" or macros (which I have no experience of)?

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This sounds like a job for the Quick Access Toolbar or QAT.

       QAT More Commands

Use the pull-down on the QAT (shown above) and choose More Commands. When you get to Excel Options ► Quick Access Toolbar you can pick Fill Series from the Home Tab group and add it to the QAT.

Use the positioning arrow buttons to set the commands position before committing the command addition with OK. This is important as its position will also set the keyboard shortcut. The first is Alt+1, the second is Alt+2, etc.

       QAT Alt keys

With that in place, you just have to tap Alt+<whatever> to get your Home ► Editing ► Fill ► Series command. It looks like you might need to hit Enter to accept the Series dialog's suggested method of AutoFill, but that is simply because there are usually choices.

FWIW, my own command demon has always been Home ► Clipboard ► Paste ► Paste Special ► Values. I have set the Paste Values in my QAT at position 2. Now I can simply Ctrl+C then Alt+2 to copy and paste special, values. I also usually remove Save, Undo and Redo to make room for other custom QAT commands as I can remember Ctrl+S, Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y.

More on the QAT at: Customize the Quick Access Toolbar

On a related note, double-clicking the Fill Handle of a cell with a formula is the equivalent of Fill Down according the the number of populated cells to the left. I habitually use Ctrl+D but if my hand is already on the mouse, this is an alternative. Experiment with this little-known/used trick and you might want to add it to your repertoire.

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  • This is actually a solution I haven't thought about or seen before that I will consider, though I will wait to mark this as the answer to my question since it feels like there should be a smiple/obvious keyboard shortcut equivalent to dragging the bottom-right handle in a cell-selection.
    – MahNas92
    Nov 14, 2014 at 17:46
  • Nice explanation +1
    – Prasanna
    Nov 15, 2014 at 15:00
  • I forgot to update, but this was an excellent neat solution that I now use, thanks!
    – MahNas92
    Dec 3, 2014 at 12:03

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