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Adding a Drop-down list to a cell in Excel - Selecting the Cells

In Excel, if you need to restrict users to a short choice of options in a cell, instead of typing the details into the Data Validation settings, you can reference cells on your worksheet that contain the details as shown below:

Example of a drop-down list of choices

Users are made to choose one of the drop-down list choices held in cells D4:D11.

When you click on cell B3 above you have to choose (or type in) one of 8 areas. In this example the choices are already typed into cells D4:D11.

To restrict a cell's contents to a list of choices that already exist in cells on your workbook and display a drop-down list:

Click on the required cell and choose: Data | Data Validation:

The Data Validation menu

Choose Data Validation...

Choose the Settings tab:

Using the Data Validation menu to create a drop-down list of options from cells D4:D11

When you click in the Source box, you can click and drag over the cells containing the data.

Choose to allow a List and when you click in the Source box you can click and drag over the cells that contain the choices required in your drop-down list (or type it in).

From now on users will see a drop down arrow on the cell which displays your list of area choices. Note that users can still type in the name of the area (as long as it exists and they spell it correctly - not case sensitive).

Note that if you add more items for your list that are outside of cells D4:D11, they will not display in the drop-down list choices. You will need to edit the Data Validation settings source box to reflect the new extended range. If you insert new cells/rows in between the original range, in this example cells D4 to D11, they will be included in the drop-down list.

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