A little assistance needed

[forgood816]

Word and Color Changing Cells

Hi everyone!

I am making an excel pricing questionnaire for the company i am interning at. I have been doing A LOT of internet research to figure the majority of everything out, but there are two things I am having a little trouble on. I have Microsoft Excel 2002 or 2003 and Windows XP

1- Is there anyway that I can have words in a cell until you click on it? For example, can i have 'Enter Number Here' and then when they click on the cell the words will disappear and the number can be entered?

2- I am trying to have it so that ALL the cells that require answers are red until an answer is given, and then it will turn a different color. I have figured this out using conditional formatting except for one issue of the number 0. It seems to treat the number 0 and a blank cell as the same thing. Is there a way I can have it red when it is blank and then a different color (say green or purple) when someone enters 0?

Thank you so much for everyone's time and assistance in advance!

 

[rallcorn]

for #1 check out Data Validation. You have a variety of options: You can choose a number from a list you have created or you can NOT have a list, but stipulate that the input be text, number (you can determine valid range, etc.).

You can choose what happens if user inputs invalid data & what message to display.

You select what the user see when they put cursor cursor in cell, but the "message" won't actually be IN the cell, it only shows up when they click in the cell.

 

[rallcorn]

For #2 - I can't remember what is new in Excel 2007, so this may not be an option for Excel 2002/2003

In Excel 2007 you can format only cells that are . . . and "blanks" is one of the options.

 

[forgood816]

Re: Word and Color Changing Cells

Thank you for such a quick response!

I am not very good with Excel.

For Number 1, I played around with Data Validation and the only thing i can get is for the little paperclip to say 'Enter Number Here' when i click on the cell. I was trying to figure out having the words already there until the cell is clicked, and then disappearing. I am not sure if you can actually do that or not, but that is what I was hoping for.

For Number 2, I am not sure what you mean exactly. I just went through all the options under "Format" and didn't really see anything else besides Conditional Formatting. I have browsed the tutorial several times the past few days without any luck I feel like there is something i can be typing in as a Formula to :Conditional Formatting" but have tried things such as ="" without luck

 

[rallcorn]

Why don't you just type the words "Enter number here" in the cell? The user will do just that & their input will replace "Enter number here".

The "blanks" option to which I referred is actually in conditional formatting in Excel 2007, I just can't remember if you can do something similar in older Excel version. In Excel 2007 it is "Format only cells that contain" & the default is "values" "between" . . . but there are drop-down boxes & "blanks" are an option instead of "values". BUT, if you decide to type "Enter number here" the cell will no longer be blank, so you'd need to use Format only cells that contain "Specific Text" then make the next box "contains" and the next box "Enter Number Here" & choose your formatting fill color to be red. Then - the box will be both red & say "Enter Number Here" - when the user enters a number the words AND the red will go away & the number the user input will be showing.

Hope that helps.