Excel validation in Onenote

Question

Hi,

I want to embed a spreadsheet in OneNote.  The spreadsheet I am using has a dropdown validation.  This seems to break onenote.  It will work initially, but if the edit button is pressed and a change made, it then breaks giving the somewhat unhelpful "Something went wrong..." error.

With the same spreadsheet, but with validation turned off, everything works as it should, including edits.

I've tried on Win10 using both Office 13 and 16 on three different machines.

Is there a way round this problem?

Thanks, Geedle.

Answer 1

Hi,

Is there any progress with this?  Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

Many thanks, Geedle.

Answer 2

Maybe steps to replicated would help:

1. Build a spreadsheet with some drop down validation
2. Save it (locally or network - it makes no difference)
3. Import into ON to view - method does not matter
4. Spreadsheet appears as it should
5. Click 'edit' in the top right
6. Spreadsheet spawns new window
7. Make a change to any non-validated cell - it works
8. Make a change to a drop down validated cell, ON does nothing and eventually throws a generic error
9. Only way to fix is to delete from ON and start again from original (loosing changes)

Hope that helps, Geedle.

Answer 3

Hi,

Thanks for your response.  I have tried inserting by:

• using the insert menu
• using the 'send to onenote' app
• and by dragging and dropping

There is no difference.

The first spreadsheet I tried it with was of medium size, so I built a really small spreadsheet with just a few cells and the behaviour is the same.

I also noticed that if I make changes to (either) spreadsheet that do not involve validation, ON updates just fine: no errors.  It is just when a change is made to validation.

Thanks, Geedle.

Answer 4

Hello Geedle,

Few more details would help us to provide a better response.

1. How exactly are you inserting Excel spreadsheet into OneNote notebook?  Are you inserting it through Insert> Spreadsheet or through Insert> File Attachment?
2. Does this issue occurs if you insert other spreadsheet containing file validation?

Let us try installing other Excel spreadsheet containing file validation and check if it work as expected. This is to verify if issue is related to Excel spreadsheet or OneNote notebook itself.

I hope the above information helps. Let us know if you need further assistance.

Thank you.