Filling a Cell

There may be times when you need to fill a cell with a particular character or group of characters. For instance, you may need to fill a cell with the characters " guess " (with the spaces) for the entire width of the cell. Excel allows you to do this very easily. It repeats the characters over and over again, regardless of the cell width. To utilize this feature, follow these steps if you are using a version of Excel prior to Excel 2007:

1. Type the characters that you want repeated in the cell.
2. Choose Cells from the Format menu. Excel displays the Format Cells dialog box.
3. Make sure the Alignment tab is displayed. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Use the Horizontal drop-down list to select the Fill option.
5. Click on OK.

If you are using Excel 2007 then you should follow these steps instead:

1. Type the characters that you want repeated in the cell.
2. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
3. In the lower-right corner of the Alignment group, click the small icon. Excel displays the Alignment tab of the Format Cells dialog box.
4. Use the Horizontal drop-down list to select the Fill option.
5. Click on OK.

Excel will repeat whatever you typed in the cell, until the entire cell is filled. For instance, if you typed two characters, then those two characters are repeated over the width of the cell.