Prevent duplicate data from being entered into the same column

[Guest]

Hello,
I am trying to do a work schedule in Excel 2003. I have a drop down box
listing all my employees names. The problem is my managers were selecting the
same employees to do different jobs creating a schedule conflict. I want to
be able to prevent this from happening so I wanted to have the names turn red
or an error message pop up to prevent this. I am stumped any suggestions?
Please help

 

[Guest]

Hi Char,

Here's what you have to do. This approach will highlight the duplicate cells.
I assume that you have a drop dwon of names from A2 to A11, A1 is the heading.

Select the range A2 to A11
Select Format-->Conditional formatting
On the drop down, select 'formula Is'
Type the formula as '=COUNTIF($A$2:$A$11,$A2)>1'. Notice the $A2.
Then select the highlight color etc
click on OK.

After you are done with this, every duplicate entry will be highlighted.
Change the range as per your requirements.

Hope this helps!!

 

[Guest]

THANKS !!! It worked !!! I think I rated your response as helpful, but I was
also trying to rate it as an asnwer so it can help others. I have read the
help topic on how to do this and I am still unsure of how to list is as an
answer. Unless rating it as helpful is the same as rating it as an answered
question.

Thanks again !! Have a great day !!

 

[Guest]

I figured out how to list it as an answer - Thanks !!