AutoFilter - Using Selectable Rows

[Ralph Wiggum]

(first time poster, long time reader)

Greetings,

There's probably a ridiculously simple answer to this but for the life of me, I can't find it anywhere.

If I create a pivot table, I'm able to click the arrow to the right on my row header, unselect "Show All" and then manually check boxes next to the rows I want to show. The pivot table then shows only the rows I'm interested in.

I can't figure out how to do this with filtering outside of the pivot table. I can select AutoFilter and then select "All", "Top 10" or individual rows, but I don't have the option to use a checkbox style selection to choose multiple, but not all, rows.

How can I set this up to have checkboxes associated with the AutoFilter dropdown so I can pick and choose which rows show?


thanks.

 

[Norie]

You can't.

That just isn't a feature of Autofilter.

Could you not use the Custom option?

 

[Ralph Wiggum]

The custom option requires you to keep picking values from the drop down list and clicking the "or" and "equals" values, so it's a bit clunky for my intended purpose. Also, I'm not even sure it can be used with more than two parameters.

So to rephrase the question, if I've got data configured the following way:

Column A/B/C

Jones/Red/Blue
Smith/Green/Blue
Thomas/Yellow/Orange
Doe/Green/Blue
etc..

how can I create a filter that has a drop down box or checkbox system to select all the people I want to see line items for? (i.e. select 'Jones' and 'Thomas' so that I only see their values and not all the other rows.)

thanks.

 

[Norie]

Why not use advanced filter instead of auto filter?

 

[Datsmart]

Good example of Advanced Filter steps here:
http://www.contextures.com/xladvfilter01.html
Advanced Filter allows you to preset filter options.
It also allows you to filter by criteria in ways standard autofilter can not do. You can choose an export location in the dialog box or in VBA code.

 

[Ralph Wiggum]

I've tried, but it doesn't work. When I select Advanced Filter, filter the list in place and select $A:$A as the range, it doesn't work.

So either I can't figure out how to use it correctly, or it's not giving me the check box option to select displayed rows that I need.


Thanks for your patience.

 

[Norie]

There is no check box option for advanced filter either.

That functionality just doesn't really exist.

You say the Advanced Filter didn't work? How?

Did you specify criteria?

 

[Ralph Wiggum]

I can get the advanced filter to work, however running it with the qualifying criteria each time the end user uses the report isn't plausible.

I was really hoping for a checkbox system where you check the values which you want to see.

If a Pivot Table could return text values, I'd be all set. Unfortunately, it can't.

 

[Norie]

There just isn't a checkbox system inherently built in.

You could probably create a userform with a listbox to simulate one though.

 

[Datsmart]

Did you look at the link I posted?
It shows you exactly how to do what you are asking.