Hi! Have you ever had a sheet in Excel with a bunch of blanks you want to replace with a specific entry? Perhaps 0 (zero)? Let me show you the fastest way to do it.
This week’s video:
Let’s start with the data. A simple grocery list suffices since this is the story of my life right now:
![](https://shemopolot.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/7a168d_1ea4afce23ee4f7a834a2e62c4637799mv2.webp)
Replace the empty spaces with a specific quantity
What if we want to place a 2 wherever there is an empty space in our grocery list?
First, we select the whole table using Ctrl (or ⌘ for Mac) + A.
![](https://shemopolot.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/7a168d_a97eb883a96f4b5ba50b1043a238b80dmv2.webp)
While the data is selected, hold Ctrl + G to open the “Go to” menu and click Special in the bottom left corner. This opens the Go To Special menu
![](https://shemopolot.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/7a168d_5d0543257b344640bfeb4e965ecd108cmv2.webp)
Select “Blanks” in the “Go To Special” menu and click OK. This will select all the blank spaces in our selected table
![](https://shemopolot.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/7a168d_bdbf2937e93c4f1ba43185aea9862547mv2.webp)
We want to replace the blank spaces with the number 2.
While all the blank spaces are selected, click inside the formula bar and type “=2”, then press Ctrl + Enter (^ + Return for Mac). All the blank spaces are filled with the number 2!
![](https://shemopolot.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/7a168d_bc47fe6ce66a4e26a79b0fd78747423cmv2-1024x720.gif)
Conclusion
The Paste Special or Go To Special menu in Excel is the Galapagos Island of hidden functionality (NERD ALERT!). Feel free to explore it since getting a social life is expensive these days.
Have a good week!