Excel drop-down validation lists and explanatory notes

Question

Hi,

I'm trying to design an excel spreadsheet where cells in various columns are populated by choices from a drop-down validation list. The options in the validation list are (for example) 1, 2, 3 and 4; where 1 = excellent, 2 = very good, 3 = good and 4 = not great. I want to be able to sum across columns so it's important that only the numeric values are included in each cell. However, I also need to include information so that a user knows that selecting '1' means that the item was 'excellent'. I have seen this done by way of a drop-down list for the cell values and a type of text box that appears when a cell is selected. But I cannot figure out how they did it. See the screenshot below for an example of what I mean.

Can anyone tell me how to do this?

Many thanks, Lesley

Answer 1

Hi Lesley,

See Debra Dalgleish's Data Validation -- Display Input Messages in a Text Boxpage at:

http://www.contextures.com/xlDataVal12.html

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Regards,

Norman

Answer 2

Aha! Right again Norman. Should be sorted now. Thanks again for your help.

Lesley