kjoshua,

Excel does make it easy, though: enter your formula in cell B1, re-select
B1, then double click the little square at the bottom right of the cell B1
(the autofill handle). Your cursor will change to a smaller black cross when
it's in the right place.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

"kjoshua777" wrote in message
...
Excel should provide an option to extend a function entered into the first
cell in a column to the rest of the column. For example, say you have a
column of five thousand text codes (A1 to A5000), each of which you want
to
truncate by two characters, you should be able to enter the formula for
the
first cell (B1) and opt for it to extend to B5000. Obviously you would
not
want it to extend further than that though.