I'm cluesless - need help with "functions"?

[Mandi]

I'm trying to transcribe information from timecards to a spreadsheet. The
person who designed the spreadsheet for me only put in equations to row 46
(not nearly enough). Heres an idea of what it looks like since I am too
uneducated on this program to know how to describe it. Cell A4 looks like
this : =IF(B3="","",B3)
A46 says, =IF(B45="","",B45). My question is: Is there a way to just
automatically put the next line's equation in, or do I have to type it all
out? Seems to me that would just double my work load. (i.e. A46 says
=IF(B45="","",B45) I want A47 to automatically say =IF(B46="","",B46)) Is
there a way to make that happen? He also set it up so that when I typed in a
date (i.e. 1/3) it would convert it into the day of the week in the next
column - is there a way to continue that on down the page? Ack!! I think
I'm even more confused now than I was 10 minutes ago. Please help. Thanks
so much in advance.

 

[Nick]

Hi Mandi,
If you click on the cell you want you will see it gets highlighted in bold
and there is a little box in the bottom right corner. if you drag this box
into your next cell it should copy the formula and format over onto the next
cell.

Hope this helps

Nick, Scotland

 

[Nick]

Just to make it clearer. when u put cursor over box ur cursor will turn to a
+ sign. now click and drab into as many cells as you need

 

[Max]

A46 says, =IF(B45="","",B45)
Just drag the fill handle* of cell A46 down as far as required, to fill the
formula in advance of expected data. The formula will auto-increment as
desired, and the formula cells will appear "blank" until data is entered in
col B.
*that's the solid black square at the bottom right corner of the cell

 

[Mandi]

First let me thank you for responding. Maybe I didn't fully understand what
was being explained.
I clicked on the last cell to have been formatted, grabbed the little
black square, and drug it down as far as I wanted. I repeated that for all
the columns I needed extended further down the page, but none of it is having
an effect. The cells had a black outline afterward, but that was the only
noticeable difference. I need for it to understand that B47 - A47 = F47,
that when I type in 1/30 in D47, that E47 needs to say Wed. , and finally,
for the time in B47 to be copied into A48.

 

[Gord Dibben]

In addition, make sure you have Tools>Options>Calculation set to "Automatic"


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP