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Excel - Fill Handle: How to Make Quarters & Years Work Together - Episode 1132

448 views · Published 28 October 2009 · 4:11 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial: Fill Handle: How to Make Quarters & Years Work Together.

Welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, where we tackle all things Excel. In today's episode, we're diving into a frustrating mystery that was brought to my attention during one of my Excel seminars. We were discussing the fill handle and how it can easily fill in quarters, but one audience member, Cara, pointed out that it doesn't work the way she wants it to. And she's right, it doesn't. But fear not, we're going to find a solution together.

So here's the issue: when using the fill handle to fill in quarters, it only counts up the years, completely ignoring the quarters. And even when trying to use the apostrophe or rearranging the order of the quarter and year, it still doesn't work. But then, in a stroke of desperation, I tried typing in Q109 without the dash and it worked! However, the format is less than desirable, with no space or dash between the quarter and year. Who would ever use this format? It's just not practical.

So, we're left with a dilemma. How do we get the fill handle to work with quarters in a more user-friendly format? One solution is to manually type in all four digits and then use the fill handle, but that's not very efficient. Another option is to create a custom list with all the possible combinations of quarters and years, but that can be time-consuming and limited to a certain number of years. And let's be real, who wants to do that?

That's where you come in. I'm offering a challenge to all of you Excel experts out there. If you have a solution to this problem, a way to get the fill handle to work with quarters in a more practical format, I want to hear from you. Shoot me an email at [email protected] and if your solution is featured on the podcast, I'll send you a copy of my book "Excel for Marketing Managers". Let's work together to find a solution to this frustrating issue.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the MrExcel netcast. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and hit the notification bell so you never miss an episode. And if you have any other Excel questions or challenges, leave them in the comments below and we'll try to address them in future episodes. Until next time, happy Excel-ing!

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Table of Contents:
(00:00) The Quarter and Year Mystery 
(01:18) The solution: Q109 without the dash
(02:02) Custom Number Format workaround
(03:24) Seeking a better solution
(03:48) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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The Excel fill handle is really cool with quarters. But wait....it can not do quarters and years. But wait...it can do them but in a hideous format. Episode 1132 asks - "Does anyone have a better way?"

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