It can be difficult to work with a spreadsheet with a lot of typos, so it’s important to reduce those types of errors.
A drop-down list is an effective way to handle this. Our tutorial below will show you how to add one to your Excel spreadsheet.
Creating a drop down list in Excel 2010 is something that seems quite simple as it is a useful item and has many uses.
But if you’ve ever tried to make a dropdown menu in Excel, you may have discovered that it’s a bit trickier than it looks.
If you’re entering data into a spreadsheet, spreadsheet, or if you’re creating a spreadsheet for others to use, it’s generally a good idea to make everything as easy as possible. A good way to do this is with the inclusion of dropdown lists.
When you have a cell that can only have a few different options, like a month, a day of the week, or even a really long option that doesn’t If you want to retype repeatedly, then a drop-down list will not only save you time, but also help you avoid misspellings or typos. Our guide below will show you how to create a dropdown list in Microsoft Excel 2010.
How to make a dropdown menu in Excel 2010
- Create the list for the dropdown menu
- Select the items, enter a name, then press Enter.
- Click the cell where the dropdown should be.
- Choose the Data tab.
- Click Data Validation.
- Choose the List
- Type an “=”, then the Name from step 2.
- Click the OK button.
option
There are other settings that can or should apply to the list, which we discuss below. Our article continues below with more information and images for these steps.
Adding a Drop-Down List in Excel 2010 (Image Guide)
The steps in the article below will result in a drop-down list that you can click to select an option. This is ideally used in situations where you’re looking for a specific value or type of text in a cell, and you want to avoid the problems that can arise when people manually enter the values.
Step 1 : Open your spreadsheet in Excel 2010.
Step 2: Type the items you want to list in a column of your spreadsheet. It doesn’t have to be the first column. It can be any column you want.
Step 2: Use your mouse to select all the items to include in the list, type a name in the Name field above the top -left corner of the spreadsheet, then press the Enter key on your keyboard. Note that you cannot use spaces or special characters when creating this name.
Step 4: Select the cell where you want the drop-down list to appear.
Step 5: Click the Data tab at the top of the window.
Step 6: Click the Data Validation button in the Tools data from the Office ribbon.
Step 7: Click the drop-down menu under Allow, then click >List option.
Step 8: Type an “=” sign in the Font field, followed by the name you created for your cell range. For example, I am typing =DaysOfTheWeek in the image below.
Step 9 (optional): Click the Enter Message tab at the bottom top of the window.
Step 10 (optional): Type a title for the drop-down list in the Title field, then type an input message in the Title input. strong> field you want to display each time the cell is selected. This is a good place to add instructions for the dropdown list.
Step 11 (optional): Click the Error Alert tab.
Step 12 (Optional): Select the style of the alert, then enter a title and message for the alert. Note that a Stop alert will prevent someone from entering an unlisted value, while a Warning or Info style alert will will allow invalid inputs and only inform the user that their input is invalid.
Step 13: Click the OK button at the bottom of the window to apply your settings .
You can make changes to the dropdown list by clicking the cell to select it and then clicking the Data Validation button on the Data tab. .
The first few times you create a drop-down list, you’ll likely find that there are a few things you want to change. For example, if other people will be entering data, then you’ll probably want to customize the settings marked “optional” above.
These various alerts and validation settings help reduce errors and eliminate confusion, which you may discover is a very important element of Excel dropdown menus.
Need to print your spreadsheet, but there’s a column that’s printing on its own page? This guide will show you how to force all your columns to print on one page and save yourself a few pages.
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