incrementing row/column data in formula

[master811]

I'm trying to increment the row/column data in a formula and can't figure out how to do it. (It may simply be a case of transposing the data, but not sure if that will work)

Eg. I have a column of data

A
red
green
blue
yellow
purple
orange

I want to place this data in another 2 columns such that

B C
red green
blue yellow
purple orange

and so on..

I actually have a few hundred rows, so want to know if there is a way to either copy down or by somehow using a formula make it so that the column B takes the 1st, 3rd, 5th values in column A etc.. and column C takes the 2nd, 4th and 6th values in column A etc..

I'm looking for something like this, (though these formulas don't actually work of course - I wish it was that simple though)
ie.
B1 = A1,
B2 = A(1+2),
B2 = A(1+4),

Am I simply making this out to be more difficult than I think it is?

[DonkeyOte]

You can use INDEX to do this... using your example

B1: =INDEX($A:$A,COLUMNS($B1:B1)+(2*(ROWS(B$1:B1)-1)))

can be applied to matrix B1:C6

[master811]

You can use INDEX to do this... using your example

B1: =INDEX($A:$A,COLUMNS($B1:B1)+(2*(ROWS(B$1:B1)-1)))

can be applied to matrix B1:C6

Thanks, that works perfectly.

Just one question, how can I move the starting point (so say I want to go from A2 downwards)?

Simply editing the first index doesn't seem to work.

[zbor]

instead of $A:$A put $A2:$A100 (or as many as you want)

[master811]

instead of $A:$A put $A2:$A100 (or as many as you want)

Although that works for the first value it breaks the existing formula and means the values become out of order and in their wrong respective columns when you copy and paste downwards.

Edit: ignore that, if I add a '$' in before the row number, it works again.