Fill Series and Manage AutoFill Lists in PlanMaker 2026

Scope: PlanMaker 2026 paid desktop, English ribbon interface; official 2026 documentation reviewed on 19 October 2026. NX builds require matching controls; compatibility with every NX build is not established here. Native application verification remains pending. FreeOffice and mobile parity are not claimed.

Create numbered batches, a weekday schedule, and a reusable packing-stage list. PlanMaker distinguishes copying a value from increasing it, and its default numeric mouse fill can surprise users accustomed to another spreadsheet.

Establish the input-only baseline

In a blank worksheet enter A1 Batch, A2 100, C1 Workday, E1 Stage, E2 PM-Pick, G1 Growth, and G2 3. Enter a real date for Friday 23 October 2026 in C2 using the date order accepted by your installation. Confirm its date interpretation before continuing; the string is not a locale-independent import format.

Leave A3:A7, C3:C7, E3:E8 and G3:G6 empty. Save fill-inputs.pmdx, then a working copy fill-practice.pmdx. All output ranges below are deliberately separated so a fill cannot overwrite another experiment.

Generate exact arithmetic batches

1. Select A2:A7, including the initial 100 and the five empty destination cells.
2. Choose Home → Contents → Fill → Series.
3. Set Action to Increment, Series type to Arithmetic, and Increment to 25. Leave Increment each cell separately disabled. Keep Contents enabled; copying the source’s format is optional.
4. If Series in appears, choose columns, meaning downwards. The manual says this choice is omitted when a single column already determines direction.
5. Confirm and check A2:A7: 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 225.

The last value is 100 plus five increments of 25. An ordinary Fill → Down copies the starting value rather than making this sequence. A mouse drag from a single number normally increases by one; it would not produce the desired batches. This difference is why the dialog is preferable for a controlled first run.

Produce a workday sequence

Select C2:C7 and reopen Fill → Series. Choose Increment, Date, Workdays, and increment 1; leave Increment each cell separately off. Expected dates are 23, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30 October 2026. The weekend is skipped. This setting excludes Saturdays and Sundays; it is not a holiday-calendar service.

Change the date unit to Days in a fresh run from the same C2 and the sequence becomes 23 through 28 October, including Saturday and Sunday. Clear C3:C7 before repeating, restore the workday settings, and verify the 26 October second entry. Do not treat a stored date serial displayed as a number as evidence that the arithmetic failed; inspect the number/date format separately.

Create and maintain your own list

1. Open Home → Contents → Fill → Series, then Edit lists.
2. Choose New and enter these three entries, each on its own line: PM-Pick, PM-Pack, PM-Ship. Confirm the list dialog and close the remaining dialog without overwriting unrelated cells.
3. In E2 enter PM-Pick. Drag its lower-right fill handle down to E8.
4. Check the seven entries: Pick, Pack, Ship, Pick, Pack, Ship, Pick, each retaining the PM- prefix.

The unusual prefix makes this practice list easy to distinguish from existing lists. Reopen Edit lists, select your practice list, choose Edit, and add PM-Inspect after PM-Pack. Clear E3:E8 and refill from E2. Expect Pick, Pack, Inspect, Ship, Pick, Pack, Inspect, again with the prefix. Existing filled text is a snapshot: regenerate the exercise output to use the edited list rather than assuming earlier cells rewrite themselves.

The optional Import experiment below comes after saving and checking the completed four-entry pattern. Do not change the list again before that checkpoint.

Multiplicative growth and safe cleanup

For G2:G6, use Fill → Series, Increment, Geometric, increment 2. Expect 3, 6, 12, 24, 48. This multiplies at each step; arithmetic increment 2 would give 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 instead. To extend the batch series to A8, select A7:A8 with the same arithmetic settings and expect 250; verify the endpoint rather than relying on an inherited dialog setting.

Save fill-practice.pmdx and reopen it before any cleanup. Verify A2:A8 contains 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 225, 250; C2:C7 shows 23, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30 October 2026; E2:E8 contains PM-Pick, PM-Pack, PM-Inspect, PM-Ship, PM-Pick, PM-Pack, PM-Inspect; and G2:G6 contains 3, 6, 12, 24, 48. These are native acceptance instructions, not a claimed run.

After that checkpoint, reopen Edit lists, select only the list beginning PM-Pick, and choose Delete. The existing filled text in E2:E8 should remain; verify it is unchanged. The documented sample lists cannot be edited or deleted. Keep the saved completed workbook as the result.

For an optional advanced Import experiment, save a separate copy as fill-import-experiment.pmdx. Enter PM-Pick, PM-Pack, PM-Inspect, and PM-Ship in J2:J5, one per cell; select those cells, open Edit lists, and use Import. Each selected cell becomes an entry. Do not include a heading or trailing blank. The earlier practice list has already been deleted, avoiding overlapping lists. When done, delete only this imported practice list. This experiment does not replace the completed fill-practice.pmdx checkpoint.

For an optional full reset, reopen the preserved fill-inputs.pmdx and save a new working copy. That restores the inputs rather than the generated result. Program lists require their separate cleanup above; reopening an input file is not a substitute for removing a customization.

Diagnose a wrong series

If every number is identical, inspect Copy versus Increment. If dates include weekends, check Workdays. If stages repeat only PM-Pick, check that your custom list was saved and that the spelling matches. If numbers jump in interleaved blocks, turn off Increment each cell separately. Recheck all dialog options whenever changing series type.

Expected sequences here were independently calculated. Native fill, custom-list persistence, and save/reopen behavior still require a real PlanMaker check. For file exchange, see PlanMaker file-format compatibility before sharing the workbook in another format.

Official documentation and verification scope

PlanMaker 2026 paid desktop, English ribbon interface; official 2026 documentation reviewed on 19 October 2026. NX builds require matching controls; compatibility with every NX build is not established here. Native application verification remains pending. FreeOffice and mobile parity are not claimed.

• Filling cells automatically
• Editing lists for automatic filling

No native screenshots are included. These are original practice fixtures and documentation-backed instructions; rendering a website or calculating expected values is not a native application test.