Auto Fill a Contact Column

Jana Blakeman

I need to have a contract cell automatically fill with the contact cell above it.  The column type is contact list and I want the user to be able to select the contact in the first row and have the rest of the rows automatically fill with that contact.

Chris McKay

Hi Jana,

Bad news. Unfortunately, Contact formatted columns do not support formulas.

If you can get away with not having the contact directly above the cells you wish to populate in the rows below, then you can use the following formula:

=IF(NOT(ISBLANK($[Contact Column]$1)),$[Contact Column]$1,"")

You are including a $ in the cell reference so it becomes an absolute reference. This means it will not change (e.g. [Contact Column]2, [Contact Column]3 etc.) when the formula is copied to other cells.

Now drag the handle in the bottom right of this cell all the way down the column as far as your data goes. Any new rows will now inherit the formula and will change automatically if the value in [Contact Column]1 is changed

Bear in mind though, that the results in your data rows will not be Contacts, only the contact name, and you will need to find something else to put in the remaining rows of your [Contact Column] so it doesn't look weird. Find something that doesn't need to be calculated using a formula and you'll be fine.

Kind regards,

Chris McKay