Display or hide the fill handle in Microsoft Excel

Display or hide the fill handle in Excel

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By default, the fill handle and drag-and-drop editing is turned on in Excel so that you can drag the mouse to move and copy cells by doing the following:

• Move a cell or range of cells by positioning the mouse pointer on a cell or cell range border so that it changes to a move pointer  , and then dragging the cell to another location.
• Copy a cell or range of cells by holding down CTRL while you position the mouse pointer on a cell or cell range border so that it changes to a copy pointer  , and then dragging the cell or range of cells to another location.
• Drag the fill handle  to copy data or to fill adjacent cells with a series of data.

You can turn this option on or off as needed by doing the following:

1. Click File > Options.
2. In the Advanced category, under Editing options, select or clear the Enable fill handle and cell drag-and-drop check box.