creating name drop down menus

[pogorelichfan]

Hello everyone...

I have a column of cells that people are supposed to write a desription of an expense. Because many people are writing on this spreadsheet the answers are all different (often for the same thing).



I know there's a way in excel to generate some text and then create a drop down menu so that people simply select the appropraite description from a list of options. I think it has something to do with the name feature...can someone help with this question?


Thanks!

 

[VoG]

Try Data Validation http://www.contextures.com/xlDataVal01.html

 

[doubledaffy]

VoG is right, it's in Data Validation.

For the Validation Criteria you have to select "List" from the dropdown menu. You'll then have to specify a range that has the values to populate the list with.

 

[VoG]

You'll then have to specify a range that has the values to populate the list with.

Or if it is a short list you can simply enter the values in the Data Validation dialog separated by commas, e.g.

Yes,No,Maybe

 

[pogorelichfan]

Peter you are brillant!

This works fine - one question - once you've assigned a fruitlist for example, it doesn't seem to like letting you edit the list - how do you add items to your list and ensure the name assigned includes the new items/edited ones?

 

[bjurney]

pogorelichfan, you can add a formula that refrences the list.


Try:

=offset($A$2,0,0,counta($A:$A)-1,1)

This will select everything in column A even if you add something to it later to your validation list except for the column header.

 

[VoG]

You need to go into the Name Manager to do that. In Excel 2007 and later that is on the Formulas tab.