I’ve been working with Excel for more than 20 years, and I didn’t know this until today.
ctrl + e is a powerful keyboard shortcut that activates Flash Fill.
This is a tool that can significantly speed up data entry and manipulate in Excel.
Flash Fill#
Flash fill is only available in Excel 2013 and later.
Using Flash Fill, it automatic fills data when it senses a pattern.
Here’s the step:
- Open the Excel file.
- Manually put in the desired pattern at the first row (column Email).
- Goto second row (column Email), press
ctrl+e, and see the magic happen.
| First_Name | Last_Name | |
|---|---|---|
| John | Smith | john_smith@example.org |
| Mary | Lee | <ctrl+e> |
| ffff | nnnnn | … |
If Flash Fill doesn’t generate the preview, it might not be turned on. You can go to Data > Flash Fill to run it manually, or press
ctrl+e. To turn Flash Fill on, go to Tools > Options > Advanced > Editing Options > check the Automatically Flash Fill box.