Dragging a formula down a long column means watching the screen scroll and hoping you stop at exactly the right row.
Excel can figure out exactly where to stop on its own, using the column right next to it as a guide.
Here's the trick:
Double-click the small square at a cell's bottom-right corner — it fills down automatically to match the column beside it.
How to use it
- Enter your formula in the first cell of the column.
- Hover over the small square (the fill handle) at that cell's bottom-right corner.
- Wait for the cursor to turn into a thin black cross.
- Double-click — Excel fills the formula down automatically to match the last row of data in the column beside it.
Where it helps most
Long tables where dragging the fill handle by hand all the way down is slow, imprecise, or easy to overshoot.
One thing to watch for
It uses the adjacent column to decide where to stop, so a gap in that column will stop the fill short. Drag manually past any gap if you need the formula to continue.
Found a faster way to do this, or a version that works differently on Mac? That's what the comments are for — this section connects to your comment system of choice (Disqus, giscus, etc.) once the site is live.