Both require you to first highlight a range of cells, starting will the cell containing the text or numbers you want copied to the other cells. Keyboard Shortcuts – Ctrl+D is the shortcut for Fill Down.But it can do much more.įirst let’s talk about the mechanics of using Fill, then we’ll get into what else it can do. For example, enter a name in cell A1, then highlight cells A1 through A5 and press Ctrl+D (the keyboard shortcut for Fill Down) and all the selected cells will be filled in with the name from A1. In its simplest form it’s like a faster version of copy and paste. Excel’s Fill command lets you fill an adjacent group of cells with the same text or numbers, or with text or numbers that form a series.