How to enable autocomplete in Google Docs Spreadsheet

Autocomplete feature helps users by automatically filling the content of cell when users starting entering the first couple of letters in the Cell. The automatic entry is picked from the previously entered values for the same column.

Let us say you have got the following list of entries in one of the column

Arizona
Alabama
California
Florida
Indiana

Now when you start typing Ar in the cell below Indiana, Spreadsheet will automatically display Arizona based on the entries done earlier for that column. And when you press enter this value will be automatically filled for that cell.

You can enable Autocomplete feature in Google Spreadsheet by clicking the Tools menu and selecting Enable AutoComplete from list of available menus.

Remember that if there is a empty cell before the active cell then Autocomplete feature will try to pick from the below column values.


Comments

5 responses to “How to enable autocomplete in Google Docs Spreadsheet”

  1. I’m not sure why this isn’t working for me. I have two adjacent cells merged, could that be why? Here is an example:

    8 JOHN DOE OVERNIGHT Acct 1 # 12345
    $ 100

    The top and bottom are merged in most of the columns, because the column(s) on the right indicate job number (top row) and dollar amount (bottom row).

    If I get another shipment later in the day to John Doe, I would like to avoid creating two shipping labels to the same client. If autofill works, I can avoid that error.

    Thanks.

  2. Thanks for this. Am I right in saying that this doesn’t work when an entry begins with a digit?

  3. Does work for me, but how long does it work thought?
    For me, it stops working after 200 rows. Is there any way it will pick up an auto complete after 200 rows?
    That’ll be a great help.
    Thanks

    1. I know this is old, but did you ever get the 200 rows thing figured out? I’m running into the same issue.

      1. Hey Nate, Goto-> File -> Spreadsheet settings -> under calculation tab ->toggle iterations calc on, Change it to 10,000. Done

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