you can do it with a userform .... and with 500 items you'd be surprised at
how fast it is!
demo
in this demo, add a Userform with two buttons, a textbox and a listbox ...
leave the default names
in a sheet, put 500 names in column D
the item selected using the listbox will be placed in cell A1 when the
sencond button is clicked
here is the userform code:
Option Explicit
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Unload Me
End Sub
Private Sub CommandButton2_Click()
If ListBox1.ListIndex = -1 Then Exit Sub
Range("A1") = ListBox1.Value
Unload Me
End Sub
Private Sub TextBox1_Change()
loadData
End Sub
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
loadData
End Sub
Sub loadData()
Dim index As Long
Dim text As String
ListBox1.Clear
For index = 1 To 500
text = Cells(index, "D")
If text Like TextBox1.text & "*" Then
ListBox1.AddItem text
End If
Next
End Sub
download from here:
http://www.xl-expert.com/listbox_with_filter.htm