How to trigger Excel AutoFill using power Automate

Question

I have an excel sheet that I am creating using Power Automate.

The sheet is populated with some data from the web and at some point I add a column (lets say at column 4 and then I have a function there - lets assume its "=B2+C2" - now I want to automate the equivalent of double clicking the bottom right corner of the D2 cell (with said formula) to cause it to auto fill downwards... Can this be done with Power Automate ?

(I know I can get the first free row and then loop and insert the above formula to all the cells - but that is way slower than doing an autofill...)

You’ve tagged PAD, so are you using PAD or just PA for this? They’re vastly different technologies and therefore, so the answer will be. — Skin, Jun 18 '22 at 21:32
Did you try with copy and paste? e.g. in PAD copy the cell from 1st row and paste to remaining range, might need to use send key ctrl-v — Anonymous, Jun 19 '22 at 00:58
@Anonymous - using sendkeys with {Control}({V}) did do the trick, though I think I am going to change to use a table and so save the need to copy the formula to begin with... plz add a solution for me to accept/ — epeleg, Jun 20 '22 at 10:09
@epeleg great it worked out. I added a solution. You may want to post whether it works using a table. — Anonymous, Jun 20 '22 at 10:21
Yes, converting my data to a table via sendkeys {Control}({T}) made is so that when entering my formula to D2 it fills downwards along the D column until the end of the table — epeleg, Jun 21 '22 at 06:08

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 20 '22 at 10:20

0

In PAD you may want copy the cell from 1st row and paste to remaining range, might need to use send key ctrl-v

answered Jun 20 '22 at 10:20

Anonymous

369
3
5

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 30 '22 at 00:15

I know im late to the answer here, but i used this thread and a few others to help with a very similar question.

To help clear things up this is the setup i used:

Activate cell in excel worksheet (in advanced)
D
2

Send keys 
{Control}{c}

Send Keys
{Down}

Send Keys
{Control}{v}

Send Keys
{Down}

Send Keys
{Control}{v}

... and so forth and so on.

If you are trying to automate an autofill on several columns:

If they are next to each other:

Select Cells in excel workbook
D
2
f
2

Send keys 
{Control}{c}

Send Keys
{Down}

Send Keys
{Control}{v}

Send Keys
{Down}

Send Keys
{Control}{v}

... and so forth and so on.

If they are not next to each other:
Simply craft the D2 "activate cell" in the top example and once completed (and tested) copy all steps in the flow, paste and alter the input for the "activate cell in excel workbook" command. Simply continue this process until all cells needing autofill are complete. (I used this approach for my project and my flow ended up being around 7000 actions)

How to trigger Excel AutoFill using power Automate

2 Answers2