cell parameters?

[susan]

I have a simple spreadsheet for people to fill in for information like
supplier name, etc.
My problem is, everyone should be putting supplier name in the exact same
way - same spelling spacing, etc...but it's not happening. Is it possible to
set up a cell to only accept certain name?
For example:
correct spelling: ABC Inc.
incorrect: A.B.C Inc. , ABC Incorp, ABC Inc
There is just one ABC Inc. and I want to control and eliminate spelling
errors/variation.
is this possible to do in excel?? please help!
THANKS!

 

[Pete_UK]

If you already have a list of acceptable names then you can use data
validation and with this your users would choose names from a drop-
down in the cell, rather than having to type them in. Debra Dalgleish
shows the basics here:

http://www.contextures.com/xlDataVal01.html

Hope this helps.

Pete

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Take a look at Data Validation in XL Help.

More here:


http://www.contextures.com/xlDataVal01.html

 

[Paul Mathews]

Susan, it sounds like you might want to use the Data Validation feature in
Excel. Click Data|Validation... then in the Settings tab, set the "Allow"
parameter to "List" and type in your list source. This can be hard typed as
a comma-delimited list(e.g., "ABC Ltd,XYZ Corp,CDE Inc") or you can create a
list of company names elsewhere in the worksheet and set a reference to that
range (e.g., "A1:A10" where cell A1 contains the name of the first company,
A2 contains the second company name, etc.). If you want the users to only
select a choice from your list rather than something not on the list, click
on the Error Alert tab of the Data Validation dialogue and configure the
alert as you wish (the "Show error alert after invalid data is entered" check
box is defaulted on).

 

[susan]

Thanks everyone - I will try this out right away!!!!!