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I start working on a project for a friend, he has some requests to be done on a MS-Excel, so I thought why not to write several posts about MS-Excel capabilities.

MS-Excel is a great application to be used, I will not write to praise the program, but will jump to coding. In Excel we can use dozens of built in ready to use tools and Formulas. Also MS-Excel has a very good, easy to use and learn programming language called VBA (Visual Basic for Application) which with simple code we can perform some tasks and create Menus, buttons and functions that runs in background.

Starting from this post we will use some built-in functions and VBA’s one that I am using in my Excel files.
So let’s say we have a table that has a column called “Pay-Method”, the value we save in this column always is one of three: “Cash, Card, Cheque” we don’t want the user to type it every time, but to select it from a list.

To do this we can use an static approach or a Dynamic approach.

Static Approach: if we have a specific answers that can’t be more like (Yes,No) or as our example above (Cash, Card, Cheque) or similar cases then we can use an static approach. So First Select First cell in the Table, from the menu we will select “Data” then “Data Validation” and select Data Validation.

Now,

• From the Allow box, we select List.
• Then in Source box, we need to type the items we want to appear in each cell as a drop-down list separated by a comma. Cash, Card, Cheque
• We need to check [Ignore Blank and In-cell Dropdown] Then Click OK.

Now we will have a small arrow on the first cell in our Table, to copy the List to other Cells (Beneath) hold the small DOT and Drag it down.

And Now we are DONE, we just create a Dropdown List in all “Pay-Method” Column in the table..

Dynamic Approach: If we have a list of items and this list is growing (We may add more items ti it), such as Fruit list in a grocery, then we will use the Dynamic drop-down list.
In this case I prefer to use a new Excel Tab call it “Setting”, so we will create one. On that Tab create a Table call it “Fruit” and list all the fruits you want to be appear in the drop-down cell list (In this example I will list down F1, F2, F3, F4, F5), Select the table and from Menu select “Format as Table” and just chose any format you want. Here is a screen shot.

Here is a screen shot

Move the Mouse next to table head until you get small Arrow, and give it a name. as in here..

Now go-back to our main Table and using the same way we did in the Static Approach (from the menu we will select “Data” then “Data Validation” and select Data Validation.) AND

• From the Allow box, we select List.
• Then in Source box, we need to type the Name we select for our table “F-Table_1” for the fruit table
• We need to check [Ignore Blank and In-cell Dropdown] Then Click OK.

Done … Now if we add new Fruit to the list “F6” it will appear in our Drop-Down cell list.

🙂 Have Fun ..