Auto fill in the word

[DetroitDavid]

I’m having an issue with a spreadsheet. It’s not Excel’s Autofill with the handle to populate a range that is an issue, but I’m not sure what to call it.

In my spreadsheet, I have a column for Status. In that column of several thousand rows, it usually is blank, but when I input some data, it is one of 5-8 single words like Spoke or Wrong or CallBack.

Even with Excel’s Filter being on and displaying a filtered set of data, about 60% of the time, when I first enter a single character (in this case S or W or C), Excel will fill-in the rest of the word for me. The other 40% or so it does not recognize it at all. I’ve even noticed that if the first two characters are the same, t will sometimes try to fill in one of the two unique words. However, I keep these status words with unique first letters so I can quickly fill that cell.

How can I get Excel to always recognize this and “automatically” fill the word in for me?

I know I could create a look-up table and have a dropdown but it seems that if it’s going to work most of the time, it should be able to work all the time.

TIA - DD

 

[Scott Huish]

Are there any blank cells between when it works and when it doesn't?

Here is a link with information on the AutoComplete feature: http://excel.tips.net/T002110_Understanding_AutoComplete.html

 

[DetroitDavid]

Thank you for the question and resource. Still unresolved...

I've read through it and to summarize and answer your question, there are a lot of blanks - in fact, I'd say that there are between 3 and 15 blank cells between the last data in the columns above and the new entry. Here's the funny thing - it's been working with those blank cells all along. And still sometimes works and sometimes does not.

 

[DetroitDavid]

Let's try this another way. I made a lookup list. Now is there any way using keyboard shortcuts while in the cell to activate the dropdown and navigate through the options to select one?