Weekly Computer Tip # 201
14 July 2007

quicky duplicate data from the previous row (Microsoft Excel)

I know, I know! Three weeks without any tips. Juggling business trips with visiting friends, going home occasionally for some clean knickers, make for days crammed to bursting. But just so you know stuff has happened since 22 June ... the first in a series of nine Enterprising Women podcasts was launched, featuring "Women involved in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) in the East of England". The first podcast was about women's motivations for going into business for themselves. See (or hear) http://www.setwomen.co.uk/podcasts.html but be warned! The first thing you hear is moi. (Like yuck!) Another thing that took place was a hotel guest entering my room. Turned out this strange invader hadn't been given the wrong key. Oh no! An overzealous housekeeper had moved all my stuff out of my temporary lodgings, something I hadn't noticed as I was slaving away over my laptop after a day's work. What else? I won a big contract that will probably keep me off the streets until March 2009. And finally, Roger Federer won his fifth title in a row, while Venus Williams was crowned ladies' champion for the fourth time in eight years.

So with apologies and good excuses over, on with today's tip, which I have to credit Donna and Gill for. (Thanks, guys!) During a recent Microsoft Access course I told them about the tip to quickly copy the data from the previous record using [CTRL] + ['] (apostrophe). "Aha", they said. "A bit like [CTRL] + [D] in Excel".

Here's how:

1. Click on the cell or row heading to select the entry you want to copy.
2. Press CTRL+D. (For duplicate; so you can remember! ;-)

If you want to copy row one in all 65536 rows (why? ;-) simply click on the "Select All button" in the upper-left corner of the worksheet frame and press CTRL+D.

Finally, a big thank you to Diane Grogan and Susan Elson who nominated their top tips which means I can create that top 10 I promised I'd do. (Susan also told me how she accesses the most useful ones so watch this space!)

Until next week.

PS I’m committed to sharing the best of what I know with others so please don’t keep me a secret. If you enjoyed today’s tip, please forward it to anyone you feel may benefit. Alternatively, feel free to reprint it (with full copyright and subscription information) in your newsletters and message boards.

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