Different behavior of data validation in Office 365 Excel and Excel 2019 Professional Plus

Question

Is it possible that Office 365 Excel behaves differently from Excel 2019 Professional Plus regarding data validation (based on a list)?

I created an Excel spreadsheet on my own computer, which has Office 365, and applied data validation to certain cells to make it easier to fill them in and to avoid incorrect data entry. This refers to a Name-list, from which the appropriate data can be selected. On my computer (365), it works great: as I start typing one or two characters, the list automatically drops down and narrows the list content to those items containing those characters. This way, the table can be filled out very quickly and smoothly.

In contrast, on another computer, where this file will be used daily, there is the 2019 version of Excel. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as described earlier. If I start typing the expression, the list doesn't drop down automatically. If I manually open the list by clicking on the small downward arrow, it drops down, but unfortunately, it doesn't narrow the list content according to the started expression.

Is this a matter of settings? How can I configure this? What can I do to make my table more user-friendly on that other computer, as it will be used by others, and it's not very good as it is now?

Answer 1

Auto-complete in data validation drop-down lists is a relatively new feature of Excel, it is not available in Excel 2019, only in Excel in Microsoft 365 and provably in Office 2024.

You can kind of simulate it using an ActiveX combo box, but that requires VBA code - see Data Validation Combo box Click