Pull Down Lists

[Fritz]

If I have built a pull down list, how do I add the ability to also add free
form content to the chosen cell?

 

[T. Valko]

What type of pull down list?

If it's from Data>Validation disable the error alert message.

Select the cell with the drop down list
Goto the menu Data>Validation
Select the Error Alert tab
Uncheck: Show error alert.....
OK

 

[Fritz]

Thanks very helpful...another question, if a user selects one of the items in
the pull down list there is a unique number associated with that item which I
would like to have displayed in another column...how do I accomplish that?

 

[T. Valko]

See if this helps:

http://contextures.com/xlFunctions02.html

 

[Fritz]

Sorry, I'm a bit of a neophyte at this...having trouble understanding
this...can you help me?

 

[T. Valko]

Well, it depends on how you intend to use the drop down list.

If you only have a "few" (less than 5 or 6) items in your list you can use a
formula like this:

Assume cell A1 contains the list.

=IF(A1="item1",value1,IF(A1="item2",value2,IF(A1="item3",value3,"")))

If your list contains "many" items then you need to create a 2 column table
like this:

........X...........Y
1..item1.....value1
2..item2.....value2
3..item3.....value3
etc
etc

Then you would use a formula like this:

=VLOOKUP(A1,X1:Y3,2,0)

However, since you allow users to manually enter items *not on the list* you
would need to account for that in whatever formula you decide to use.