Occasionally when you are entering data into a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel, you may notice that a word is pre-filling the cell.
If you are expecting this and want to incorporate it into the way you edit spreadsheets, then it can be a helpful tool.
But if you find that is causing problems, then our tutorial will show you how to disable AutoComplete for cell values in Excel 2013.
How to Stop Excel from Autocompleting
- Open Excel.
- Select the File tab.
- Click the Options button.
- Choose the Advanced tab.
- Uncheck the Enable AutoComplete for cell values option, then click OK.
Our guide continues below with additional information on how to disable AutoComplete for cell values in Excel 2013, including pictures of these steps.
Excel 2013 has some features that are meant to improve how you use the program.
One of these features is called “AutoComplete,” and it will allow you to quickly fill in cell data with a previously-entered value.
You can see this when you start typing data into a cell, and Excel provides a string of characters that are outlined in gray.
While this can be helpful if you are repeatedly entering the same values into your cells, it can be difficult if you are entering a slightly different series of data.
Fortunately, the AutoComplete function is not something that you need to accept, and you can turn it off entirely. Our guide below will show you where to find this setting so that you can disable it.
How to Turn Off AutoComplete for Cell Values in Excel 2013 (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article will show you how to turn off the AutoComplete option for Microsoft Excel 2013.
This is a program-wide setting, so it will affect every spreadsheet that you open in the program.
If you decide later that you prefer to work with the AutoComplete function enabled, then simply follow these same steps to turn it back on.
Step 1: Open Microsoft Excel 2013.
Step 2: Click the File tab at the top-left corner of the window.
Step 3: Click the Options button in the column at the left side of the window.
Step 4: Click the Advanced tab at the left side of the Excel Options window.
Step 5: Click the box to the left of Enable AutoComplete for cell values to remove the check mark. You can then click the OK button at the bottom of the window to apply your changes and close the window.
Now that you know how to disable AutoComplete for cell values in Excel 2013, you can prevent errors that might occur if Excel starts filling in your cells with the wrong information.
Are the cells in your Excel worksheet filled with a color that makes them difficult to read, or is distracting?
Learn how to remove cell fill color in Excel 2013 to adjust the way that your cell background color is displayed.
If there are more formats that you need to remove from your cells, then it may be easier to just clear all of the cell formatting. This option may be preferable, as it allows you to start from scratch with unformatted data.
Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.