Description: For a few work flows I have it would be really useful to have a smart fill feature that can iterate over multiple different inputs and fill in a given direction. For example if I had a row that was A [] [] [] B [] [] [] C [] [] [], where [] notes a blank cell, it would be nice to have a Fill Cells option that fills based on the most recent filled cell. eg. the desired output from the example would be A A A A B B B B C C C C. I am not sure what to call this function, maybe "Iterative Fill"? Steps to Reproduce: 1.Select a range of cells 2.Sheet -> Fill Cells -> Down OR Right OR Left OR Up 3. Actual Results: Based on the above example using the current fill options I get A A A A A A A A A A A A Expected Results: Based on the above example I would like A A A A B B B B C C C C Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info: See description of feature request
To repeat your idea you have a text "A" in A1 and "B" in A5, select A1 and pull down to fill up to A10 and expect the duplication to consider existing content rather overwriting it. (The STR differs intentionally from your range selection) Most users expect content to be overwritten, or rather are familiar with this shortcoming of the function. So if this is going to be implemented it needs some switch to activate, may it per modifier key (eg. ctrl/cmd), which works only for the mouse interaction, or per on/off option. Another question is how the double-click should work, see also bug 126189. Meaning, if A1:10 has content and B1 contains "A" and B5 "B" does the switch changes the current behavior (double click fills until B5) and all cells are fill where adjacent columns have content.
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. Competitors do not provide this options but there might be workflows that make such a procedure beneficial. And there is no harm in adding. So we agree with the request to re-initialize the autofill function in case of cell content and suggest to switch per ctrl/cmd (the default should remain the current and familiar overwriting).