On dragging or hovering the mouse over the fill handle, it changes from a square to a black plus sign. It is also possible to fill the range with consecutive numbers (like 1-10).Ī fill handle is an essential part of the AutoFill feature of Excel. The number of the selected cell is copied in the different ranges, horizontally and vertically. Likewise, one can fill a range with a series of numbers. Leftwards (till cell A8)–The text “abc” appears in the range A8:D8.Rightwards (till cell I8)–The text “abc” appears in the range F8:I8.Upwards (till cell E4)–The text “abc” appears in the range E4:E7.