The Fill Handle

The fill handle is a small square at the bottom-right corner of the active selection. Drag it down to copy to cells below. Drag right to copy across.

You will use it to copy month labels, duplicate values, and — most importantly — copy formulas like =SUM(B2:E2) down to every department row.

Select any cell on the Budgets sheet — for example B2 with English's Q1 amount. Look at the bottom-right corner of the selection border for the square handle.

If you do not see it, click the cell again. The handle appears only when one or more cells are selected.

On the Budgets sheet, practise on a spare row or column:

Type Jan in G1. Select G1. Drag the fill handle right to J1. If Excel offers Jan, Feb, Mar…, accept the series. Otherwise type months manually.

For budget amounts, copying the same number duplicates it. Copying a formula (next lessons) adjusts references — that is the main use on NorthgateBudget.xlsx.

When a column beside yours has data, double-click the fill handle instead of dragging. Excel fills down until the adjacent column ends.

You will use this after SUM formulas are in column F — double-click from F2 to copy =SUM(B2:E2), =SUM(B3:E3), and so on for all departments through F6.

Dragging copies exactly what is in the cell. If F2 holds =SUM(B2:E2), dragging to F3 gives =SUM(B3:E3) — the row numbers shift. That is relative referencing, covered in the Formulas section.

Do not drag a single hard-coded total across rows if each row needs its own range. Always check the formula bar in F3 after copying — it should show =SUM(B3:E3), not =SUM(B2:E2) again.