Custom Text Lists copying, not filling
 

Hello!

I'm using Excel 2003 (11.83something). I'm doing an inventory report that goes by merchant ID, merchant name, merchant location, item number, and item description. (There is no math here, so no formulas used.) This sheet is laid out like such:

SMITH1 - Smith's Warehouse - New York - WIDG123 - Widget #123

Each item is in its own column (and no - of course). I set up custom lists (via Tools - Options) for our most commonly referred to items and merchants (columns A, B and C are one list, D and E are another), so that I can hide colums B, C and E, and enter this in A and D:

SMITH1 - WIDG123

Then I unhide and use the + to autofill, first dragging A into B and C, then dragging D into E. This works fine if I go cell by cell, and sometimes if I do two or three cells at a time, but when I do more, it just copies, so I wind up with a sheet that looks like this:

SMITH1 - SMITH1 - SMITH1 - WIDG123 - WIDGE123
SMITH1 - SMITH1 - SMITH1 - WIDG567 - WIDGE567
SMITH1 - SMITH1 - SMITH1 - WIDG999 - WIDGE999
SMITH2 - SMITH2 - SMITH2 - WIDGE234 - WIDGE234

Etc. (Again, columns, no -.)

I've checked and everything is in the custom list that needs to be. In some cases it will do the first or last few, but the middle will just get copied. I even edited my lists (is there a way to do this in an external editor?) so there's nothing but numbers and letters in them. (Edit: Some have parentheses, out of necessity, but some still copy and some don't.) Every item starts with a letter; some end with numbers.

All columns are set to be General or Text.

What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks!

Edit: In addition, sometimes, after copying a group from Column A into Column B while trying to autofill, I can use the little square menu box to select "Fill Series," but I have to clear the cells back out first by selecting "Fill Formatting Only," then selecting "Fill Series" again. So confusing!)