Where to find Allow Cell Drag and Drop option in Excel 2010?

by Ankur Jain on August 4, 2010

Sometime back while working on excel 2010, it seems by mistake I disabled the option to use “cell drag and drop”. This feature allows you to drag the mouse and copy cells. If this option is disabled, your mouse pointer will never change to move pointer on selecting a particular cell.

Ok, here is what I mean. In the illustration shown below, mouse pointer is getting changed to move pointer as soon as I bring it to the edge of a cell.

excel2010

There is some info available on the net for Excel 2003 and the earlier versions ie by going to Tools > Options > Edit and checking "Allow cell drag and drop", you can enable this option but there is no information regarding the same for Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. So how can you enable this option in 2010?

Go to File > Options > Advanced > Enable file handle and cell drag-and-drop
Check this box.
Click OK and you’re done

I wish there was some “mapping file” available from Microsoft for mapping excel 2003 and earlier versions navigation to excel 2007/2010. It could save us a lot of time.

Tagged as: excel, how to

{ 62 comments… read them below or add one }

aimee w August 5, 2010 at 3:50 AM

Heya

I know that there’s a mapping app, from Microsoft, for telling people used to 2203 how to get to Office features in 2007.
The Excel one lives here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/interactive-excel-2003-to-excel-2007-command-reference-guide-HA010149151.aspx

Ankur August 6, 2010 at 2:13 PM

@aimee – Thanks for the link. Bookmarked.

Thanks August 13, 2012 at 3:52 PM: Really thanks for this!

Reply

Shashikant June 14, 2011 at 4:34 PM

Thanks a lot. its works

Laxmidhar Panigrahi June 15, 2011 at 11:54 AM

you can enable this option but there is no information regarding the same for Excel 2007

Follow the Below steps
1. Click on Office Button which is at Left top corner of Excel sheet
2. Click on ‘Excel Option’ >> Advanced
3. Check the ‘Enable fill handle and cell drag-and-drop’ checkbox
4. Press OK

Sunil Bankar June 23, 2011 at 1:13 PM: Hey Thanx a Lot…..Its Works..

Reply
Senthil August 5, 2012 at 4:04 PM: Thanks a lot, it was very helpful….

Reply

Manjunath July 15, 2011 at 1:45 PM

It is more helpful.

Thanks
Manjunath

Nandagopal R R August 11, 2011 at 5:32 PM

Really helpful… thanks or posting…

Kedar September 12, 2011 at 2:28 PM

Hey.. Thank you so much…. It is working now…
I was searching it for so many days..

Thanks Again..

Kedar

Nooram September 21, 2011 at 12:26 PM

Hey Thanks Mate ..

this really helped

Pandharinath G. Kerkar December 28, 2011 at 7:28 PM

Sir,
Thanks a lot.

I would request your kind self to provide us the tips of shorthand key commands in excel 2007/2010 against shorthand key commands used in excel 2003, as I am very much used to shorthand key commands in excel 2003. Microsoft company should have maintained same sequence of tools, commands, utilities in excel 2007/2010 (when introducing new features in excel 2007/2010) as time consumed will be lesser and will be helpful for excel 2003 users.

Regards,
P.G. Kerkar

Hope you will take the matter into consideration.

paula May 3, 2012 at 1:45 PM

Dear Ankur,

I’m working with Excel 10 and have checked the box ‘Enable fill handle and cell drag and drop’ but still the feature doesn’t work, and it’s so handy if it does. Do you have any idea why it wouldn’t work. Does it matter I work with Windows 7?

regards,
Paula

Ankur Jain May 4, 2012 at 3:12 PM: @paula: I’m not sure, once you check the box, see if closing and then opening Excel helps you. I did this on Win XP.

Reply

arun May 4, 2012 at 4:43 PM

fantastic, its really help me , i bit worried it looks some thing corropted.. Thanks.. God bless.. once question :: can we use shortcuts in 2007 excel which we were using in 2003 ?

Saqib June 11, 2012 at 8:07 PM

Thank you.

In my excel, it was never enabled to start with.
And there was me cursing the gayness of microsoft excel.

Kastur June 15, 2012 at 10:34 PM

Its ROCKING!!

Dimple June 26, 2012 at 10:32 AM

Thanks……….It Works…………

Ram June 26, 2012 at 4:04 PM

Thank you. It works and was very helpful

Srini June 27, 2012 at 6:27 PM

Thanks was helpful

Yadav N B July 3, 2012 at 6:17 PM

Thanks for perfect solution.

yogesh July 4, 2012 at 4:57 PM

Thanks very usefull information

vinod sinha July 9, 2012 at 10:41 AM

thanks to help us.

Karthikeyan July 10, 2012 at 5:12 PM

Thanks a lot. I was searching for this info for past couple of days and even i repaired the Office setup. . You saved me from resinstalling the Office

Muraaali July 13, 2012 at 10:23 AM

Thank you so much. friend keep on update any tips n tricks.

kingshuk July 31, 2012 at 12:28 AM

Hey,thanks Sir.I was facing a lot of problem…your site helped me..may God bless u..

Raja July 31, 2012 at 10:48 AM

Thank you so much. It really helped for me

DEBASHISH DAS August 7, 2012 at 12:27 PM

thank you so much….!!!

P. Suresh Ganesh August 9, 2012 at 3:39 PM

Thank you so much…this really worked

Pandarinath August 10, 2012 at 11:29 AM

thanks cool!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tarsem Lal August 13, 2012 at 3:12 PM

Thanks a lot.

Jay August 13, 2012 at 3:21 PM

Thanks.. it really helps.. !!

Rohan August 17, 2012 at 2:27 AM

Thansk a lot

Bhola August 27, 2012 at 7:58 PM

Thanks a lot friend

Ashok biswal August 29, 2012 at 6:22 PM

thanks boss your site is really helped me.

mangesh August 30, 2012 at 12:01 PM

Mr. Laxmidhar Panigrahi thanks its really works

Jyothi Bhat August 31, 2012 at 1:58 PM

Thanks a lot! It helped

Vani September 4, 2012 at 2:33 PM

The Solutions works perfectly. I was struggling to figure why i am not able to drag and drop in excel. Thank you so much .

son September 17, 2012 at 10:22 AM

Thanksssssssssssss

Ramkumar September 19, 2012 at 5:35 PM

Thank Now it work.

naveen September 28, 2012 at 1:36 PM

Thank U!!!!!!!

TARA October 4, 2012 at 10:56 AM

MANY MANY THANKS…….
I GOT MY ANSWER………….
AGAIN THANKS AND THANK U SO MUCH……………………
993766311/8978907383

Mihir October 16, 2012 at 4:11 PM

Hi Ankur,
Thank you very much. You really saved me a lot of time.

Faisal October 17, 2012 at 6:48 PM

Its really work thanks a ton

amol October 31, 2012 at 12:24 PM

Thanks a lottttttttttt…….

Imran Ahmed November 27, 2012 at 10:52 AM

Thanks a lot for this write up. Saved a lot of time….

Sharath Kumar December 15, 2012 at 4:12 PM

Thanks a lot for the solution. It helped me a lot.

Amit Thakur December 25, 2012 at 1:10 PM

Thanks a lot. It was so easy and very helpful.

Dr.Prasanna December 28, 2012 at 12:51 AM

Thanks it works well

NIDHI January 4, 2013 at 3:19 PM

THANK YOU SO MUCH.
MY PROBLEM WAS SOLVED WITH YOUR HELP.

SANJAY BHATT January 16, 2013 at 9:45 PM

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Amir Riaz January 30, 2013 at 3:36 AM

@ Paula,

Some users, like you, may find that even after checking the box ‘enable fill handle and cell drag and drop’ they are unable to use the feature. In this case, just check if you are using the filter function, remove filter temporarily and the ‘drag for progressive numbering’ will work. I just hope it works for you.

mahesh kumar January 30, 2013 at 9:09 AM