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TocogroupFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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When I copy down rows in an Excel table, why aren't all the formats copied with them ?

Hi,

When I copy down rows in an Excel 2010 table by dragging the handle in the bottom right cell of the table, it doesn't paste all the formatting of the copied row.

I've attached an example of this. When I drag the handle down on the table's bottom-most row, I'm expecting the copied rows to show the same border formatting. But they don't ! The first two cells lack the bottom border.

Any ideas ?

Toco
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Gerwin Jansen
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Hi, looks like you forgot to add the example, can you add it?
In Excel 2010 when you right click to paste, under the 6 paste options you have "paste special" Click on that.
On the flyout you will see "Paste special" again. Click on this and choose the elements that you want pasted.
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ASKER

Please find file now attached.
The idea is not to use Copy and Paste but to drag the table handle downwards
Toco
Table-row-copy.xlsx
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clinker83

Perhaps you should format the entire column before performing the drag handle function. You can simply do this by clicking on letter or number of column, right-click and format
I'm not seeing what you're experiencing, when I drag, the formatting gets copied down just fine (tested in Excel 2007 though). Can you post an additional screenshot of your error? Thx.
Firstly, formatting the whole column is not what I want to do. I want to format the column only within the table.

I've attached a screen shot of the table after I had used the grab handle to add 5 new rows. I would have expected the border formatting to have been copied down during the process.
Screen-Capture.PNG
Can you try selecting cells A4-K4 then drag down in right lower corner of cell K4
But selecting cells A4-K4 and then dragging the handle down copies the selected cells including the values, to the rows beneath. I don't want to have to delete the contents of my new rows.

I'm really intrigued as to why a straightforward drag handle operation in a table doesn't copy down the cell formatting. Either it's an oversight in this version of Excel or it's something pretty obvious which I've missed.

Perplexed.
But dragging is supposed to copy and that's what is doing if you select A4-K4. You could copy 1 row this way, empty it and then repeat dragging that empty row for as many rows as you like.
But it's a sizing handle, not a copying handle. It's there to allow the user to increase the size of the table to the desired number of rows. My question is, which row does it take its formatting from ? The example I supplied seems to suggest the formatting is arbitrary. I know how to copy rows in a table and copying and then removing the contents is not something the user would want to do.
I only have Excel 2007 to test now, I understand your issue, please see attached image, do you have the same option I have? After dragging down, I can select the little icon and choose 'Fill Formatting Only'.User generated image
Hi,
That was quite a good solution except it doesn't work on Tables. When you drag down and select 'Fill Formatting Only' it formats the rows beneath as desired BUT these rows are outside the Table.
It works for a normal range but not for a range that has been converted to a table.
Back to the drawing board for me.
Toco
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Gerwin Jansen
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Thanks for that. I understand how it works now. Setting the various formatting options are required as the first operation. Thereafter you don't need to select the range A2:K3  (in the example). A simple drag down of the handle will add new rows in the desired formatting.
Kind regards
Toco