Question Concerning Look of SpreadSheet

[Guest]

Hello Microsoft community,

I had a quick question concerning the look of my spreadsheet. It is a fairly
simple spreadsheet so I think someone with more knowledge of Excel might be
able to answer easily.

The spreadsheet I am referring to is a catalog of documents. These documents
are organized by categories that get more specific. For example column 1 is
general, 2 is a bit more specific, and 3 is very specific. There is then a
brief description following columns that describe the type of document it is
(article, book, etc.) as well as language and title of the document.

Now for my question. I was wondering if there is anyway to make this
spreadsheet more search able and like a type of database. If possible, I
would like users to be able to click the categories and then have them get
more specific until they were finally at the article of choice.

Is this possible in anyway? Am I right in thinking that Excel is capable of
something like this? Is there any place I can find an example, tutorial, or
just more information in general on this type of thing?

The only other example I can think of that compares to something like this
is that of a library.

Thank you for your time

 

[JE McGimpsey]

See

http://contextures.com/xlDataVal02.html


for one way.


Longtime listener first time caller

 

[Guest]

Thank You JE McGimpsey. I am looking through some of the sample spreadsheets
for some ideas and see a couple possibilities, are there any of those
examples that you had in mind?

Once again thanks for your input, anyone else have some other ideas?

 

[Gord Dibben]

The site JE posted shows you how to make dependent lists.

Select from category list to get a list of items for that category.

Select from item list to drill down to a list of specifics for that item.

If you want a sample workbook try one of these from

http://contextures.com/excelfiles.html#DataVal

DV0044 - Dependent Cell List Multiple Offset

DV0037 - Dependent Lists Country City

DV0030 - Dependent Cell List Lookup


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP