Excel's fill handle is a multi-purpose, small black dot or square in the lower-right corner of the active cell. It saves you time and effort when you want to copy the contents of one or more cells to adjacent cells in a worksheet.

The fill handle works in conjunction with the mouse. Fill handle applications include:

Try this simple example in your own Excel spreadsheet.

Highlight the cell(s) containing the data you want to copy or, in the case of a range, extend.