How to Populate Drop Downs in Excel
Microsoft Excel is a software application used to build spreadsheets for the home and office settings. It is developed and distributed by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft Office package, with versions for use on Macs and PCs. When building a spreadsheet, you can create a pull-down menu, also known as a drop-down menu, from one of the cells. These pull-down menus are fully customizable and can be added in as many cells as you like. Populating the drop-down menus with your own selective information can be done with ease.
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Instructions
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List the items you wish to appear in the drop-down menu vertically in a column in the order you want them to appear in the menu, putting only one item in each cell. Do not leave blank cells in between the items in the column. This column can be anywhere on your spreadsheet, but should not be in the area where your drop-down menu will go.
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2
Click once on the cell in which you would like the drop-down menu to appear, which will highlight it.
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Click on the "Data" icon at the top of the page. On that drop-down menu, scroll down and click on "Validation." In the Validation window that pops up, click on the "Settings" tab at the top of that window.
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Click the "List" icon under the "Allow" box. An input box labeled "Source" appears after doing so.
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Enter the range of the cells with your list items in them into the "Source" box, preceded by the "=" symbol. For example, if you put your list items in column "T" and used rows "15" through "21," you would enter "=T15-T21" (without the quotation marks).
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Check the "In-Cell Drop-Down" box. Also choose to clear or select the "Ignore Blank" box, depending on if you would like the drop-down menu to require an input or not.
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