Excel.Tips.Net Welcome toExcel.Tips.Net

Helpful Links

Tips.Net Home
ExcelTips Home
Ask an Excel Question
Make a Comment

Tips.Net Store

ExcelTips FAQ
ExcelTips Premium

Learn Access Now
Free Printable Forms

Beauty Tips
Car Tips
Cleaning Tips
College Tips
Cooking Tips
Excel2007 Tips
ExcelTips
Family Tips
Gardening Tips
Health Tips
Home Tips
Legal Tips
Money Tips
Organizing Tips
Pest Tips
Pet Tips
Wedding Tips
Word2007 Tips
WordTips

Advertise on the
ExcelTips Site

Newest Tips

Recording a Macro

Adding a Little Animation to Your Life

Converting a Range of URLs to Hyperlinks

Making the Formula Bar Persistent

Engineering Calculations

Digital Signatures for Macros

Fixing the Decimal Point

 

Adding and Using a Combo Box

Summary: Combo boxes can be a great way of getting user input in a worksheet. Here's how to add a combo box to your worksheet and put it to use. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

Excel includes several different form controls that you can add to your worksheets. One of these controls is a combo box. This control allows you to pick an option from a drop-down list, and then determine what was picked. To create a combo box, follow these steps:

Somewhere in your worksheet, create a list that specifies what you want to appear in the combo box. For instance, if you have a list of names you want to appear in the combo box, create that list of names in your worksheet. (For this example, let's assume that you create the list in cells K7 through K13.)

  1. In versions of Excel prior to Excel 2007 make sure the Forms toolbar is displayed. (Choose View | Toolbars | Forms.) In Excel 2007, click on the Developer tab of the ribbon. (The controls are visible when you click the Insert tool in the Controls group on the ribbon.)
  2. Click on the Combo Box tool in the toolbar or ribbon. The mouse pointer changes to a small crosshair.
  3. Create the actual combo box by clicking and dragging to define the parameters of the control. When you release the mouse button, the combo box appears in your worksheet.
  4. Right-click on the newly created combo box. A Context menu appears.
  5. Choose the Format Control option from the Context menu. Excel displays the Control tab of the Format Control dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
  6. In the Input Range box, specify the range used by the list you created in step 1. (For instance, K7:K13.) You can also click once in the Input Range box and then use the mouse to select the range in the worksheet.
  7. In the Cell Link box, specify the worksheet cell that you want to contain the index value of what is selected in the combo box.
  8. Click on OK.

Your combo box should now work properly. If you click on the down-arrow to the right of the combo box, you should see the items from you list. If someone selects an option in the combo box, the cell you specified in step 7 is updated to contain the relative position of the item selected in the combo box. In other words, if some selects the fourth item in the combo box, then the cell specified in step 7 will contain the value 4. (Similarly, if you change the value at that cell—the one specified in step 7—to a different value, then Excel changes what is displayed in the combo box.)

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2711) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Your Data, Your Way! Want the greatest control possible over how your data appears on the page? Excel's custom formats can provide that control, and ExcelTips: Custom Formats can unlock the secrets to creating your own custom formats.
 
Check out ExcelTips: Custom Formats today!