20100414

Random Neat Google Apps Trick

Chatted over lunch with a cloud-monitoring friend, who suggested the idea of automatically naming machines, e.g., "mercury, venus, etc.". Brainstorming, I pointed out that Google Sets would be a perfect data source. Then told him about this neat trick with Google Spreadsheet. It later occurred to me that some non-negligible fraction of the developed world might still be (a) unaware of, and (b) interested in this, so here it is.

  1. Open up a new Google Spreadsheet.
  2. In cell A2, type "superman".
  3. In cell A3, type "spiderman".
  4. In cell A4, type "wonder woman".
  5. Select cells A2-A4.
  6. Prepare to autofill down (I said Prepare, don't do it yet!), by hovering the cursor at the bottom right of cell A4.
  7. While holding the CTRL key, click and drag down to Cell A20. Let go and observe the magic.
  8. Go to Step 6, rinse and repeat.
There, my thank you to all your kind wishes.