Excel drop down boxes

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Guest

I have created a few drop down boxes on an excel spreadsheet, that work out great... But now I am trying to figure out if there is a way to hide the actual button for the drop down box so that it doesn't show up when printing the sheet.. I want the information that is contained in the drop down to appear when printed but I don't want that arrow button to show up... Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated...
 
If you right click them, and select the format button at the bottom of
the Menu (paint and brush symbol), you should see a Property tag in the
middle. There should a checkbox option not to show them while
printing.

(My Excel version is not Engish so I can only assume it's the same as
yours)
 
pc,

Drop Downs?? You mean ComboBoxes??

Right Click/Format Control/Properties
Uncheck "Print Object"

John

pc said:
I have created a few drop down boxes on an excel spreadsheet, that work
Click to expand...
out great... But now I am trying to figure out if there is a way to hide the
actual button for the drop down box so that it doesn't show up when
printing the sheet.. I want the information that is contained in the drop
down to appear when printed but I don't want that arrow button to show up...
Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated...
 
I tried that...However the information that is contained in the drop-down / combo-box will not show up either, I just want that "arrow-button" to not show...

For example...I created an order entry form for our company, and added a few combo-boxes to simplify some standard selections that would appear, like F.O.B point, and I want the information of that section to show up on the form when printed (like Mill or Delivered price), however I don't want the arrow button of the combo-box to show up.... I created a form in Word that has drop-down/combo-boxes and the arrow doesn't show up there when printed, and i want the same thing to happen in my excel sheet as well... Any suggestions....Thanks
 
PC,

Not sure what you're using as comboboxes???
The suggestions that Andrew & I gave you should work.

If you want, send the workbook to me directly and I'll take a look at it.
(e-mail address removed)

John

PC said:
I tried that...However the information that is contained in the drop-down
Click to expand...
/ combo-box will not show up either, I just want that "arrow-button" to not
show...
For example...I created an order entry form for our company, and added a
Click to expand...
few combo-boxes to simplify some standard selections that would appear, like
F.O.B point, and I want the information of that section to show up on the
form when printed (like Mill or Delivered price), however I don't want the
arrow button of the combo-box to show up.... I created a form in Word that
has drop-down/combo-boxes and the arrow doesn't show up there when printed,
and i want the same thing to happen in my excel sheet as well... Any
suggestions....Thanks
 
Huh....I will try it again....I just checked my mail again, and nothing got kicked back... Something should be coming in a few moments..
Thanks Again
 
Paul,

I did finally receive the workbook.
My SpamKiller on my home PC deleted it and I couldn't rescue it.
I'm posting the explanation in the newsgroup to close the thread and
so that it might be of use to someone searching for something similar in
the Google archives.

Anyway, to your workbook......
I know see what you were trying to do.
I'll just take one of the ComboBoxes as an example.
What you did was place the box to cover a cell and wanted your
selection to print, but not the arrow on the ComboBox.
That can't be done.
You had the linked cell directly underneath the ComboBox which
gave you the list number of the selection.
What I did on the workbook that I sent back to you..........
Inserted a column in front of the range where you were populating
the ComboBox from and numbered that column consecutively starting
with one.
I then named the numbered column and your range of names as "req".
I changed your Linked Cell to a cell directly above that range (Sheet2!A1
to be exact).
In the cell directly underneath the ComboBox, I entered the following
formula:
=VLOOKUP(Sheet2!A1,req,4,FALSE)
Lastly, I set the properties of the ComboBox to NOT print.

What the above does:
When you make a selection from the ComboBox, your choice number
will go into Sheet2!A1. The VLookup in the cell under the box will
look up that number in the range named "req" and return whatever is
4 columns to the right of that found number which just so happens to be
the name that was selected in the ComboBox.
You won't see this when you're looking at the workbook but when you
print, the ComboBox itself won't print, but the name in that cell underneath
will print. You can format that underlying cell as desired.

Some extra notes.....
Had you used a ComboBox from the "Controls Toolbox", the Linked cell
would have given you the actual text of the selection and not a number
(which
might have been easier to work with).

Another option would be to run a macro each time the ComboBox was changed
to populate that underlying cell with the value of the ComboBox.

Hopefully, what I gave you, should work well for you.

If you need any more help with this, please post back in the ng.

John
 
Great, thanks alot I really appreciate it.... I knew it somehow could
be done, just wasn't sure of the correct technique to do so... This does the trick!!
 
Hi
I think you are all getting way confused about this.
I found this page via a search and I was really confused by th
answers.
Anyway I've found the answer myself and thought I would share it
Actually I am using MS Word but am sure it is the same.

In the properties of the combobox (the drop-down list you are using
(you have to be in 'design mode' first) click the ShowDropButtonWhe
option.
you have 3 choices. if you choose number 1 which is calle
fmShowDropButtonWhenFocus and also turn off the black border and als
the sunken effect then you will just see the words in the box and n
arrow.

When you hover over the box, thearrow appears but when you print it i
not shown.

Well that was what I was after. Nice and simple. No VBA code to use
just some properties changes.
Hope it helps someone

Nige
 
All,

Is it possible to create drop-down boxes within Excel AND allow user
to input free text when the choice is not available?

I know this seems to violate the idea of "validating".

What I'm trying to do is provide my users with a fairly complete lis
of manufacturers from which we can buy. However, I cannot completel
predict 100% of the manufacturers we'll ever use.

HELP
 
I've lost the original post, but if your dropdowns were created via
Data|Validation, you could show that data|validation dialog.

Then on the Error Alert tab, you can specify Stop/Warning/Information
and even choose not to display the message at all. (Checkbox at the top.)
 
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