You can use the AutoFill handle to quickly drag a series into existence. You can drag days of the week, months of the year, or a numerical series — you can even create your own custom series.

You can use data validation to restrict the type of information allowed in a given cell (or cells). In addition, you can use data validation to limit data to a predefined list of acceptable items and display the items as an in-cell dropdown list.

Use VLOOKUP to find corresponding information in a list of data.

Excel gives you the ability to combine text from multiple cells into a single destination cell.

In Excel, you can take a cell and split its text across columns in a number of ways. The easiest of these is to use the Text to Columns command under the Data menu in Excel.