Home > Data > Data Entry > Fill Blanks Fill Blank Cells in Excel 2003 Some Excel sheets have blank cells, to make the headings easier to read. If you need to sort or filter the list, those blank cells need to be filled in. Use this simple technique to quickly fill blank cells in Excel 2003 For newer versions of Excel, see the Fill Blank Cells page

Fill Blank Cells Manually

To fill blank cells manually, you will select all the blanks, enter a simple formula in each cell, then convert the formulas to values. Watch the short video to see the steps, and written instructions are below the video

Video: Fill Blank Cells

This video shows the quick steps to fill blank cells in Excel 2003. Written steps are below the video.

Fill Blank Cells in Excel 2003

Follow these steps to fill blank cells in an Excel 2003 worksheet.

Select empty cells

1. Select the cells in the column, starting in the row below the column heading.
2. Choose Edit | Go To
3. Click the Special button
4. Select Blanks, click OK

Add a formula

1. Type an equal sign
2. Press the up arrow on the keyboard -- this will enter a reference to the cell above -- cell A2 in this example
3. Hold the Ctrl key and press Enter -- this enters the formula in all selected cells

Change to Values

In order to sort or filter the data, the formulas must be changed to values.

1. Select the entire column
2. Choose Edit | Copy
3. With the column still selected, choose Edit | Paste Special
4. Select Values, click OK

Note: Do this carefully if there are other cells in the range which contain formulas.

Download the Sample File

To see the report with blank cells, and test the Fill Blanks technique, download the sample file. The file is zipped, and is in xls format, and does NOT contain macros.

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