How to create a drop-down list in Excel sheet

Keeping your data organized and accurate is fundamental, and tools like drop-down lists can help you achieve this goal. Read this article to learn what drop-down lists are and how to use them.

What are drop-down lists in spreadsheets?

A drop-down list is a predefined menu of options that users can select within a spreadsheet cell. This feature limits the inputs to a specific set of values, ensuring consistency and reducing errors in data entry.

For instance, imagine you’re managing an inventory spreadsheet. Instead of manually typing the item category for each row, you can set up a drop-down list with options like “Electronics,” “Clothing,” or “Home goods.”

Why use drop-down lists?

Drop-down lists offer several benefits that make them a valuable tool for organizing and managing data:

1. Improved accuracy: By restricting inputs to predefined values, drop-down lists eliminate errors such as typos or unintended entries. This is important when working with big datasets.

2. Quick data entry: Selecting from a list is faster and more user-friendly than typing manually. This makes drop-down lists ideal for repetitive tasks or when working with collaborators who may be unfamiliar with the dataset.

3. Data validation: Drop-down lists ensure that only valid data is entered. This can be critical when preparing reports or generating insights from your data, as you’ll have a clean and uniform dataset to work with.

4. Professional presentation: Using drop-down lists makes your spreadsheets look more polished and organized, which is particularly important for presentations, reports, or collaborative projects.

Examples of drop-down lists

• Project management: Track task statuses with options like “Not Started,” “In Progress,” and “Completed.”
• Event planning: Manage attendee responses with lists for options like “Confirmed,” “Tentative,” or “Declined.”

How to create a drop-down list

Now that we know what drop-down lists are, let’s see how to insert them in a sheet using ONLYOFFICE Spreadsheet Editor.

To make the process clear, let’s use an easy example: we will create a drop-down list of nationalities that we need to insert in a list of participants to an event.

Open ONLYOFFICE Spreadsheet Editor and navigate to the file where you want to insert a drop-down list, or create a new one.

Highlight the cell or cells where you want the list to appear, then go to the Data tab and click Data Validation. We decided to insert the list in a different sheet.

In the pop-up window, choose List under the “Allow” section.

Select a range of cells from your spreadsheet that contains the values for the list. You can either enter the values manually, or highlight them. Then, click OK.

The selected cell(s) will now feature a drop-down arrow, allowing you to choose from the predefined options.

Click on a cell to see the drop-down menu and verify that it functions as expected.

Tips for optimizing drop-down lists

• Dynamic lists: Use a named range or formulas to create lists that update automatically when new items are added.
• Protect the lists: Lock the worksheet to prevent accidental changes to the list or its settings.

Get ONLYOFFICE Spreadsheet Editor

Looking for an advanced yet intuitive spreadsheet editor to manage your data effortlessly? ONLYOFFICE Docs has everything you need. Sign up for a DocSpace account or download the desktop app to explore all the features, including the convenient drop-down list functionality, and make your workflow more efficient.

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