In this quick tip, you will discover two fast methods to simultaneously enter the same formula or text into multiple Excel cells. This is particularly helpful when you need to apply a formula to all cells in a column or fill all empty cells in a table with the same value (for instance, "N/A"). These techniques are compatible with Microsoft Excel 365 through Excel 2007.

Mastering these straightforward methods will free up valuable time for other enjoyable activities.

Here are the fastest ways to select cells:

Select the entire column

• If your data resides in a fully structured Excel table, just click on any cell in the column and press Ctrl Space.

• If you have a basic range (when clicking on any data cell doesn’t show the "Table Tools" tab in the top-right corner of the Excel ribbon):

  Note. Note: Unfortunately, pressing Ctrl Space alone selects all cells in the column, from C1 to C1048576, even if only cells C1-C100 contain data.

  Position the cursor at the first cell in the column (or the second one if your Table includes headers), then press Shift Ctrl End to navigate to the end of your table, hold Shift and press the Left arrow key repeatedly until only the required column is selected.

  This is the fastest way to select all cells in a column, especially if there are several blank cells interspersed among the data.

Select the entire row

• If your data is in a fully structured Excel table, just click on any cell in the row and press Shift Space.
• If you have a basic range, click on the last cell in the row, then press Ctrl Home.

Select several cells

Hold Ctrl and left-click on all cells you want to populate with data.

Select the whole table

Click on any cell in your table and then press Ctrl A.

Select all cells in a worksheet

Press Ctrl A, then Ctrl A again.

Select blank cells within a specific area (row, column, table)

Select the area you need (see below), for example, the entire column.

Press F5 to open the "Go To" dialog and click on the Special… button in that dialog.

Choose the "Blanks" option in the "Go To special" window and click OK.

Back in Excel, you’ll see that only the blank cells within the selected area are highlighted. True, it might be quicker to select three blank cells individually with the mouse cursor. However, what if you have over 300 blanks scattered among 10,000 cells?

The fastest way to insert a formula into the entire column

You have a large table and you wish to add a new column containing a formula. For example, you receive a list of links (new backlinks to www.ablebits.com :) ) and you want to extract the domain names from these links for further processing.

1. Convert your range to an Excel table. Select any cell within your data range and press Ctrl T to display the "Create Table" dialog (the shortcut is Ctrl L in Excel 2003). If your data include column titles, ensure the checkbox "My table has headers" is checked. Typically, Excel identifies your table headers automatically; if not, check this box manually.

2. Add a new column to your table. It’s much simpler to add a new column to a table than to a simple data range. Simply click on any cell in the column next to where you want to add a new one and choose Insert > Table Column to the Right (or "Table Column to the Left").

3. Name the newly added column.

4. Input your formula in the first cell of the new column. In my example, I’ll use the following formula to extract domain names: =MID(c2,FIND(":",c2,"4") 3,FIND("/",c2,9)-FIND(":",c2,"4")-3)

5. Press Enter. Voila! Excel automatically fills all blank cells down your column with the same formula

   If you ever need to revert back to a simple range from a table for some reason (I can’t think of any :)), select any cell in your table, then press the "Convert to range" button on the Design tab.

   

This tip applies only if all cells in the column are blank, making adding new columns the ideal approach. The next tip is universally applicable.

Insert the same data into multiple cells using Ctrl Enter

Select the cells where you want to fill the same data in your Excel worksheet. Refer to the tips above for rapid data selection.

Suppose we have a table listing our customers (this is a fabricated list, naturally :) ). There’s a column showing the websites from which our customers originate. We aim to fill the empty cells with "_unknown_" to simplify future filtering:

1. Select all the blank cells in a column.
2. Press F2 to edit the last selected cell and type some data: it could be text, a number, or a formula (e.g. "_unknown_")
3. Press Ctrl Enter instead of Enter. All the selected cells will be populated with the data you entered.

If you’re aware of additional shortcuts that expedite data entry, please share them in the comments. I’d be delighted to include them with your credit in this article.

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