Posts Tagged ‘drop-down’

Create a Drop-Down List in MS Word Forms

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Lots of times there is a need to create a form within MS Word wherein the form is e-mailed to a colleague or a client and they fill out the form and send it back to you.

It can be very tedious to sort through the information when users insert data that you are not specifically looking for and that is where drop-down lists come in very handy, because you can create a drop-down list with specific items for selection.

To create your drop-down list, follow the steps below:

If your form template has already been created, open it and remove protection from the form.

If you are just creating your form, right-click on an empty spot on your toolbar which will open the list of Toolsbar.  From there, click on the Forms Toolbar, which will open a floating toolbar.

Click the Drop-down Form Field button.

Double-click the field to open the dialog box.

Type each choice for the drop-down list and click Add.

Make sure you arrange them in the order you prefer.

Click OK.

The form will display the typical arrow next to the field. When you click it the choices are displayed for you.

Don’t forget that you will not be able to use the form until you protect it!

You can use these same techniques to create an online form for the Web. In this case, however4, use the tools on the Web Tools toolbar to creatre the form fields, which has many of the same controls as the Forms toolbar.

Go ahead and experiment with it. I think you will find that it is fun to create forms and not difficult at all!

Create a Drop-Down List From a Range of Cells in MS Excel

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

There are many reasons why one would want to create a drop-down list in MS Excel, but mostly I think, because it makes your data entry much easier and you can limit the entries to certain items that you can determine.

You can create a drop-down list of entries that is compiled from cells elsewhere on your worksheet and when you create the drop-down list, it will display a drop-down arrow next to that cell. When you want to select an item from that list, you can simply use the drop-down arrow and click the item that you want.

To create a drop-down list in MS Excel 2003, follow the steps below:

  • Use a single column or row without blank cells to create your valid entries for your drop-down list.

 

  • Make sure that you have sorted the list in the order in which you would like it to appear in your list.

You can use another worksheet or workbook if you like. To use a different worksheet in the same workbook:

  • Type the list on that worksheet.
  • Define a name, such as classes.
  • Select the range of cells.
  • Click the Name box at the left end of the Formula Bar.

  • Type the name for the cells.
  • Click Enter.

Pretty simple to do and it looks so very professional and is very helpful to boot!