How to Use Flash Fill in Excel

Flash Fill is one of the best tools in Excel - but not many people know about it! This feature is available from Excel 2013 onwards. Learn how it works in this two-minute video.

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With Flash Fill, Excel can combine the information in two columns for you, or pull out a specific piece of text out of the middle of a cell for you. But you have to train it first.

For example, if you have title, first name and surname in three columns, but want to create a cell with all this information combined, add a fourth column. Type the data into the top cell in this new column and move down into the cell below, as in Nicky’s example above. Then, press CTRL + E and Excel will auto complete the rest for you!

Don’t confuse this with Autofill – learn about this great time-saving tool in our blog here.

Learn the 10 core principles to create a happy and productive workplace in Henry Stewart's book, The Happy Manifesto.

Support your aspiring and current managers to be empowering and confident leaders with Happy

Happy offers leadership programmes at Level 3, Level 5 and Level 7, from new managers/supervisor level all the way up to senior leadership teams and CEOs. These programmes are based on the ideas of trusting your people. They are practical and based on applying what yo’ve learnt. We aim to inspire and ignite change in your organisation, as well as giving you valuable management skills such as business strategy, decision-making, negotiation and project management.

We also offer programmes tailored specifically to people from Global Majority backgrounds. The content is the same, but have been designed to give new and experienced managers the skills they need to navigate organisational culture with a clearer perspective on their own potential, as well as building their confidence and expanding their professional strengths.

Claire Lickman

Claire is Head of Marketing at Happy. She has worked at Happy since 2016, and is responsible for Happy’s marketing strategy, website, social media and more. Claire first heard about Happy in 2012 when she attended a mix of IT and personal development courses. These courses were life-changing and she has been a fan of Happy ever since. She has a personal blog at lecari.co.uk.

Next Conference: 2025 Happy Workplaces Conference

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This year’s event will be held in London, venue TBC. We may also offer a hybrid option for people to join us online simultaneously — do let us know if you are interested in joining online and we can add you to the waiting list.

As always, our next conference will be filled with interaction, discussion and space for reflection.

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