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Creating Drop Down Boxes in Excel Columns
After you have placed data within rows and columns, you can then create drop down boxes for columns in your spreadsheet.
Create the criteria for the drop down (e.g., MD, VA, DC, PA, DE) in a section of the worksheet you won't be using. This will allow users to only pick from this list, which can be updated easily.
You want to keep this information away from the working part of the spreadsheet so you don't include it in any function with the actual data in the spreadsheet.
Highlight the cells in the column you want to create the drop down box for.
Go to Data tab
Then Data Validation
Choose "List" from selection
Click on small box
Go to list of criteria for drop down, highlight text
Click on small box to open. Press OK. Excel will fill in the cell designation for drop down box.
The data in the drop down box will reflect your criteria.
If not, repeat the steps to make sure you highlighted the correct data for that column.
To edit the criteria, make the changes in the criteria and repeat the steps.
