Alice Keeler

Try This Trick: Pixel Art Fill Multiple Cells

Need to fill multiple cells in a Google Sheets spreadsheet at once? Try this trick! Pixel art fill multiple cells at the same time.

Alice Keeler

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Try This Trick: Pixel Art Fill Multiple Cells

Students love using pixel art. It is basically paint by number. There are lots of ways for students to use pixel art for academic reasons. However, it can be tedious to type the same number over and over again. Try this trick for pixel art fill multiple cells.

Sample Pixel Art Lesson

Check out this brownie division activity adapted from a Jo Boaler Mathematical Mindsets activity. To represent their understanding of division multiple ways students use the pixel art to cut up “brownie pans” in the spreadsheet.

Pixel Art Fill Multiple Cells

To fill in a large number of cells in a spreadsheet the same color using pixel art you would need to type the same number over and over.

There is a better way!

Shift Key

In a cell type a number into the pixel art template. Single click back on that same cell and hold down on the Shift key. While holding down the Shift key, click on another cell. This will automatically select the range of cells in between the two cells.

Control Enter

With the range selected hold down the Control key and press Enter. This will copy the value or formula in the upper left-hand corner to the entire range. In the case of pixel art it will place the number typed into all of the cells in the range, thus quickly painting an entire section of the spreadsheet.