Using auto fill with dates in Numbers for Mac

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Using auto fill with dates in Numbers for Mac

I have tried to get Numbers for Mac to auto fill dates - with those dates being a week apart. I haven't been able to do it. I know that it's probably me doing something wrong, but what?

I'm not sure if it makes matters worse for me, but the person who created the original spreadsheet in Excel for Windows left a blank row between each 'entry'. Like this:

When I select the date cells (not including the header), then grab the yellow circle and extend the selection to the cells below, this is what I get:

But I wanted it to add 7 days to 6th Oct and continue from there.

Obviously, if it were just those few dates, I would do it manually, but I have many more to do.

Thanks for any help, Andrew

Posted on Sep 19, 2019 11:07 PM

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Answer 1

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SGIII

Level 8

36,134 points

Sep 20, 2019 5:51 AM in response to Andrewkr

Make sure the first date is a true date-time (right aligned by default; your dates don't look as if they are in a format that Numbers recognizes) and then you can do something like this:

In A3, filled down:

=IF(A1="","",A1+7)

Then to "remove" the formulas, select the cells, command-c to copy, followed by Edit > Paste Formula Results.

Substitute ; for , in the formula if your region uses , as a decimal separator.

SG

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Answer 2

Andrewkr Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 20, 2019 8:47 PM in response to SGIII

Hi SG,

Thanks for your answer. I didn't get it right first time, but I did get it correct eventually.

It seems to me very complicated. Do I have to go through this every time I have non-consecutive dates that I want to auto fill? Or is the problem created by the blank row between each record?

If the IF statement is referring to the blank row (which is how I read it), would another solution be to copy/paste the formula? (Yes, I know I asked about auto fill, but in reality, I want the simplest solution.)

By the way, as far as I can tell, I have the dates in 'true date format'. They just look a little different to most.

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Using auto fill with dates in Numbers for Mac

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