Excel Drop-down List

How To Create a Drop Down List In Excel

If you have experience tinkering around in Excel, then you might already be familiar with Excel’s drop down lists. Essentially, a drop down list allows you to fill in a cell using a drop down menu of preselected options. It’s a great way to save time when entering data manually, particularly if you have more than one person working on the same spreadsheet. Once you have the correct drop down lists in place, you don’t have to worry about certain categories or types of data being inserted into the wrong places.

But what do you need to do to set up a drop down list? How can you update or change a drop down list in Excel? What do you need to do to get rid of a drop down list? Finally, if you need help troubleshooting a problem, where can you access expert help with Excel?

In today’s guide, we will answer all of these questions and more. Additionally, we will teach you exactly how to add a drop down list in Excel using a few different methods. So, let’s get started!

How To Make A Drop Down List In Excel

Fortunately, if you don’t know how to insert a drop down list on your own, the process is pretty simple. Just follow these steps:

  1. Create a new worksheet or open an existing sheet in Excel
  2. Select the cell or range of cells where you want the drop down list
  3. Click on the “Data” tab
  4. From the “Data Tools” group, select “Data Validation”
  5. In the Data Validation dialog box, click on the “Settings” tab
  6. In the “Allow” field, choose “List” from the drop down menu
  7. In the “Source” field, enter the items you want in your drop down list, with each item separated by a comma
  8. After entering the list items or selecting a range, click on the small icon again to maximize the Data Validation dialog box
  9. Click “OK” to finalize your list

How To Edit Drop Down Lists In Excel

Now that you know how to create your own drop down lists in Excel, it’s time to take better control of them. For instance, if someone else creates a list and you need to make additions, you’ll need to know how to edit existing lists. To revise a list in your worksheet, just follow these steps:

  1. Click on the cell containing the drop down list you want to edit
  2. Go to the “Data” tab
  3. In the “Data Tools” group, click on “Data Validation”
  4. In the Data Validation dialog box, click on the “Settings” tab
  5. Find the “Source” field containing the current list of items or range of cells
  6. Manually add, remove, or revise the items in your list
  7. (Optional) If you referenced a range of cells, you can update the drop down list by editing the data from the “Source” field
  8. After editing the list items or updating the cell range, click “OK” to finalize your changes

Remember that if you have applied the same drop down list to multiple cells, you only need to update the source data or Data Validation settings once, and all instances of the drop down list will be updated automatically throughout your entire worksheet.

How To Remove Drop Down Lists In Excel

Taking out drop down lists from your Excel worksheet is just as easy as creating them. To remove a drop down list in Excel, you’ll need to clear the Data Validation settings for the cell or range of cells containing the list by following these steps:

  1. Select the cell or range of cells containing the drop down list you want to remove
  2. Go to the “Data” tab
  3. In the “Data Tools” group, click on “Data Validation”
  4. In the Data Validation dialog box, click on the “Settings” tab
  5. Click the “Clear All” button at the bottom of the dialog box
  6. Click “OK” to finalize the changes

The drop down list should now be removed from the selected cell or range of cells. If you need to remove drop down lists from multiple cells, you can repeat these steps for each cell or range of cells, or select all the cells at once before following the steps outlined above.

Drop Downs With Multiple Selections

Unfortunately, Excel’s built-in Data Validation feature doesn’t support multiple selections in a drop down list — at least not directly. However, you can use VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) to create a drop down list that allows multiple selections by following these steps:

  1. Press ALT + F11 to open the VBA editor
  2. In the VBA editor, go to the “Insert” menu and click on “Module”
  3. Copy and paste a valid VBA code into the module
  4. Close the VBA editor
  5. In your Excel worksheet, select the cell or range of cells where you want to create the multi-select drop down list
  6. Go to the “Data” tab
  7. In the “Data Tools” group, click on “Data Validation”
  8. In the Data Validation dialog box, click on the “Settings” tab
  9. In the “Allow” field, choose “List” from the drop down menu
  10. In the “Source” field, either manually enter the items you want in the drop down list or select the range of cells containing the list items
  11. Click “OK” to finalize your changes

Now, when you select an item from the drop down list, it will be added to the cell as a comma-separated value. To add more items, simply select them from the list, and they will be appended to the cell contents.

Remember that this solution uses VBA, which might be disabled in some cases due to security settings. If you encounter any issues, you may need to enable macros or adjust your security settings in Excel.

Drop Downs With Color Coding

To create a drop down list with color coding in Excel, you can use Conditional Formatting along with Data Validation. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Create your list of items with corresponding colors in a separate location in your worksheet; for example, you could list items in column A and their colors in column B
  2. Select the cell or range of cells where you want the drop down list to appear
  3. Click on the “Data” tab
  4. In the “Data Tools” group, click on “Data Validation”
  5. In the Data Validation dialog box, click on the “Settings” tab
  6. In the “Allow” field, choose “List”
  7. In the “Source” field, reference the range of cells containing the list items
  8. Click “OK”
  9. Select the cell or range of cells where the drop down list is located
  10. Go to the “Home” tab and click on “Conditional Formatting” in the “Styles” group
  11. Choose “New Rule”
  12. In the “New Formatting Rule” dialog box, select “Use a formula to determine which cells to format”
  13. In the “Format values where this formula is true” field, enter a formula that refers to the cell with the drop down list and the cell that contains the corresponding color
  14. Click on the “Format” button, and in the “Format Cells” dialog box, choose the fill color that corresponds to the first item in your list
  15. Click “OK” in the “New Formatting Rule” dialog box to create the first conditional formatting rule
  16. Repeat steps 10-15 for each item in your list, updating the formula and color accordingly

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