How To: Create drop-down menus in Microsoft Excel 2007

This video is a tutorial on how to create drop-down menus in Excel 2007. Select a cell on your spreadsheet and click on the “Data” tab. Go to the “Data Tools” section and select “Data Validation”. In the window that opens select "Allow" and choose "List". You will create a list of the values you want to allow. Type in the values, separated by commas, and click OK. Now you will see your selected cell has an icon to right that indicates there is a drop-down menu containing the values you entered. Now nothing else can be typed into that cell.

If you prefer you can have the values in your drop-down list tied to something else in your spreadsheet, so that you can change them if you want. Select a cell on the spreadsheet and enter your values. Now go back to the first cell and go to “Data Validation”. This time instead of typing the values into the "Source" field, you will select them from the spreadsheet. The "Source" field contains a button that allows you to go back to the spreadsheet to select your values. Selecting the entire column will place a formula in the "Data Validation" window that shows the entire column is selected. Open the "Data Validation" window and click OK. Now when you click on the icon next to the cell you will see it contains the values in the column that you set up. If you add other values into the column they will automatically appear in your cell.