KB199503 - AutoFill is limited to 255 characters in Excel

Article ID: 199503

Article Last Modified on 1/23/2007

Microsoft Office Excel 2007
Microsoft Office Excel 2003
Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q199503

For a Microsoft Excel 97 version of this article, see 156350.

SYMPTOMS

When you fill a series in a range of cells, the AutoFill feature may not update the series values in these cells. This behavior occurs if you either use the fill handle to fill a cell value down (or across) a range of cells or if you point to Fill on the Edit menu and then click Series.

CAUSE

In Microsoft Excel, you may enter 32,767 characters into a cell, but the AutoFill feature will not work on cells that contain more than 255 characters. Instead of detecting and filling a series, Microsoft Excel will instead copy the cells.

MORE INFORMATION

By dragging the fill handle of a cell, you can copy that cell to other cells in the same row or column. If the cell contains a number, date, or time period that Microsoft Excel can extend in a series, the values are incremented. For example, if you have "Qtr1" (without the quotation marks) in cell A1, and you fill this down to cell A4, you will end up with the following:

   A1: Qtr1
   A2: Qtr2
   A3: Qtr3
   A4: Qtr4

Additional query words: auto fill XL2000 xl2002 XL2003 XL2007

Keywords: kbprb KB199503