Filling and incrementing (or decrementing) cells in spreadsheets and editors can be cumbersome. Some programs require you to use laser-like precision to click a tiny little square on the corner of the cell, use clumsy formulas, or manually type in values.
I strive to make the process as easy as possible in Modern CSV. Here are four approaches you can use to fill cells and increment or decrement their values.
Middle-mouse button click dragging
When I first developed Modern CSV version 1, I thought it would be cool to use the middle mouse button to click on a cell, drag it, and fill neighboring cells with its contents. So I implemented it and it was well received.
Later, I thought it would be cool if I could press the + key on numerical cells and have it increment by 1. But if I’m doing that, I might as well have the - key decrement. And hey, what if someone wants to increment by 5? So I had it increment by 5 (or 3 or 7 or whatever) when the user presses a number key. What about decrementing by 5 (or 3 or 9, etc.)? OK, so if the user holds down the number and the - key at the same time, it’ll decrement. What about incrementing or decrementing by 10? Well, the 0 button’s sitting there. Might as well use it for that.
And thus, one of my favorite features was born.
Fill Selected Cells with Series
The click fill feature is a great tool for quick edits, but there are times the Fill Selected Cells with Series command is needed. It’s useful for the following cases:
- You want to fill in a ton of cells.
- You want to increment or decrement by a number greater than 10.
- You want to increment or decrement by a decimal.
- You want to fill in words.
- You don’t have a middle mouse button.
- You don’t like using the mouse.
Add or Update ID Column
I used to use the above features for ID columns until a user suggested a dedicated command. Hence, the Add or Update ID Column command was born. And I felt dumb for not thinking of it myself. Here’s what it does:
| If you… | it will… |
|---|---|
| don’t already have an ID column | Create one in the first column and fill it in. You choose the starting number. |
| already have an ID column, but it’s empty | Fill it in, and you choose the starting number. |
| have a partially filled ID column | Fill in the gaps, starting at one above the highest number. |
| have a full ID column | Do nothing. |
UUIDs/GUIDs
As of version 2.3, you can fill cells with UUIDs with the Fill Selected Cells with UUID/GUID command. It will let you pick from a variety of formats and you can use v4 or v7 UUIDs with the UUID Type setting. Furthermore, you can middle mouse click drag on a UUID and hit the + button to generate new UUIDs with the same format. Read more about it here.
Bonus: Append/Prepend Cell Contents
If you want to add text at the start or end of a bunch of cells, you can use the Append Cell Contents or Prepend Cell Contents commands. It gives you two options:
- Same text for all cells.
- Different text for each cell.
The first one will ask what that text is and append or prepend it.
The second one will give you a query just like the Fill Selected Cells with Series command.
The feature for filling by dragging the middle mouse button is in the free version. You can download it here: https://www.moderncsv.com/download
The Fill Selected Cells with Series, Add or Update ID Column, and Append/Prepend Cell Contents commands are available in the Premium versions. You can get a license key here: https://www.moderncsv.com/buy
I’m always looking for ways to make editing faster and more intuitive. Got any ideas? Click here and let me know!