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Hack 34 Create Custom Lists

By adding a custom list to Excel, you can type
the first item in the list, drag it down using the fill handle, and
watch the list fill automatically.

One of Excel's most
popular time-saving features is its ability to automatically
increment not only numbers, but certain text as well. Excel has a couple of built-in lists, such
as days of the week and months of the year.
Currently when you use the fill handle, you type the first
item, then use the fill handle to fill cells with the next item in
the list, and so forth. You can
easily create our own custom list for commonly used items.

The most flexible way to create a
custom list is to enter the list contents into a range of
cells. For example, say you have a
list of 100 employee names. Enter each name, starting with cell A1
and ending with cell A100, and sort the list, if needed. Then select Tools Options..., and
on the Custom Lists page tab, click Import List from the Cells box.
Using the mouse pointer, left-click in cell A1 and drag all the way
down to A100. Then click the Import
button. From this point on, the
custom list will be available to all workbooks on the same
computer.

Once you create a custom list, you can
turn the list upside down. To do
this, return to the column next to the custom list and place the last
entry from the list in the top cell.
In the cell beneath it, place the second-to-last entry.
Select both cells and double-click the fill handle. The list you
produced should be reversed. You can sort the original list by
selecting Data Sort Options, nominate the list,
and then sort it.

If your list is sorted and you want to turn it upside down, you might find it easier to sort from Z to A if the list originally was sorted from A to Z.