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In MS Excel, after selecting a range of cells it is possible to enter a value and press CTRL+ENTER to have that value set in all selected cells.

Is there a keystroke in Google Spreadsheets that would achieve the same result?

Note: I know about the drag the cell's corner feature; I'm interested in doing this using only the keyboard.

Right now the closest to this I've got is:

  • enter value in one cell
  • CTRL+C;
  • select range of cells;
  • CTRL+V.

but I'd be a lot happier if it's possible to do this in fewer steps.

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1
  • And anyhow, the 'drag the cell's corner feature' doesn't just copy values; it increments them, often undesirably.
    – Michael Scheper
    Commented May 4, 2015 at 5:08

4 Answers 4

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59

This should be possible see: Keyboard shortcuts for Google spreadsheets.

Are you using a Mac?

The workflow is as follows

  1. Enter the value in one of the cells
  2. Select your range with your cursor by grabbing from the first cell and dragging (no need to hold the blue cross in the corner, but the range should be highlighted when you are finished)
  3. Type CTRL+Enter (windows) CMD+Enter (Mac)

This fills the selected range with the value.

The only other option would be to use Array formulas

When you press Ctrl+Shift+Enter while editing a formula, you'll automatically get =ArrayFormula( added to your formula.

Consider saving the official shortcuts for Google Spreadsheet as a bookmark on your browser.

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  • 15
    Thanks for the answer! I finally realized why it wasn't working: I tried CTRL+ENTER while I was in edit mode in a cell (in Excel it works that way). In GDocs, after entering the value the cell must first be saved and then the keystroke works.
    – Cristian Lupascu
    Commented Jan 17, 2012 at 20:48
  • Oh man, this is a tremendous time saver. it recognizes the pattern you are trying to replicate for an entire column e.g. I am tracking NFL average scores in column B. Column E has total points scored, column D has games played. In cell B2 I can enter "=Divide(E2,D2)" then highlight all cells from B2 to B33 (32 NFL Teams) Hold ctrl and enter. Voilà, the pattern is applied to all the cells for each team
    – user58281
    Commented Jan 31, 2014 at 18:22
  • So glad to have finally found the solution to this. I wonder why Google put in that extra step—it ends up requiring at least two extra keystrokes and generally feels clunky.
    – Michael Scheper
    Commented May 4, 2015 at 5:11
  • Adding on to what @CristianLupascu has posted for Windows, on MacOS, key in your value, hit ENTER, then COMMAND + ENTER
    – user5305519
    Commented Jun 15, 2021 at 7:13
  • @phwd It seems to only duplicate the value of the first cell (the one on the top left): 1) enter the value "1" in the cell A2 2) click outside the cell to apply the edit (and quit the edit mode) 3)drag the cell A2 to A1 (its draws a selection containing A2+A2). 4) type ctrl+enter RESULT: it deletes the editing (A1 et A2 are empty)
    – JinSnow
    Commented Apr 1, 2022 at 7:10
13

You can select multiple cells, type in your value, then hit Ctrl-D to fill down, or Ctrl-R to fill right.

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  • 1
    This doesn't work in FireFox 37 under Mint 17.
    – Michael Scheper
    Commented May 4, 2015 at 5:06
  • 1
    Works in Chrome on OSX...
    – drevicko
    Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 15:12
  • Also works in Chrome 73 under Mint 19. Perhaps this is a Chrome-only feature?
    – Michael Scheper
    Commented Apr 19, 2019 at 15:12
  • This doesn't work on Chrome in Windows. Ctrl+D is a browser bookmark shortcut, Google Sheets can't capture that.
    – leetNightshade
    Commented May 15, 2019 at 22:59
  • 2
    @MichaelScheper I double checked. Still the same, Ctrl+D is browser bookmark even on docs.google.com. Ctrl+F is captured, but not Ctrl+D.
    – leetNightshade
    Commented May 21, 2019 at 19:30
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I found this worked for me as long as the cells were adjacent. There is one step you need to add after entering your value in the first cell...

You can select multiple cells, type in your value and hit Enter, then hit Ctrl-D to fill down, or Ctrl-R to fill right.

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0

This allows you to complete (without re-selecting the range!) what is a useful single keystroke in Excel, with just two extra keystrokes in Sheets:

In Mac Sheets:

Select range (within a column), type value... Enter, Shift+Tab, Cmd+Fn+D

Select range (within a row), type value... Enter, Shift+Tab, Cmd+Fn+R

In Mac Excel:

Select range (any range), type value... Ctrl+Enter

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