Combo Box / Dropdown Box HELP!!!!

[Katmouse]

This is probably a lot easier than I'm making it, but I'm lost!

I've created a multi-sheet workbook in Excel 2007 to keep track of our DVDs,
audio CDs, video games, etc. Each sheet is devoted to a specific media type.
I'm about to start entering our audio CDs, and here's what I would like to
accomplish:

First field: Artist Name
Second field: Name of album/CD
Third field: A dropdown list of the tracks on that CD.

Everything I've seen/read about creating combo boxes/dropdown boxes indicate
I have to enter the information that I want to appear in the dropdown
somewhere else in my spreadsheet. I don't want this dropdown to be
'selectable' as one would normally expect from a dropdown, I just want a
dropdown of static information so if, let's say, I'm looking for a specific
song by a specific artist, I can find it easily. Which brings up another
question - is the information in this dropdown box searchable? Is what I want
to do possible?

Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated. I used to work for Microsoft
but I never dealt with Excel much and I'm really clueless on the development
side - I did end-user support in operating systems and networks! Thanks in
advance for any help anyone can provide. Feel free to email me:
(e-mail address removed) - thanks again!

 

[Luke M]

Yes, creating a combo box does require you to enter the data somewhere else.
Thus, when you do a search, you don't really find what's in the combo box,
you find what's listed somewhere else.

You can create something that sort of looks like what you want, by setting
up validation rules(Tools-Validation) in a certain cell, tell its to only
accept certain words (in your case, track titles). There is a character limit
though, so you would have to appreviate. Negative side is that you can't
search for this, as Excel doesn't actually see the word as being in the
sheet, its more a guideline.

Suggestion:
Moving horizontally, go artist name, name of album, track 1, track 2, track
3, etc.
Then, for orderliness, you could set up another sheet that had a few cells
that used vlookup formulas (see XL help for guidance) that could quickly
display author, name, and tracks depending on info you entered. (I'm thinking
a search function?)

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

Data Validation does allow you to enter the items for the list directly in
the Source box of the command. However, data validation list are probably
not "searchable".

You can look at these web sites for code to create a searchable list:

http://www.contextures.com/xlDataVal10.html
http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/autocomplete-validation.htm

If this helps, please click the Yes button

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire

 

[Katmouse]

Shane,

I can definitely live without this being searchable. Can you give me a
little more info on how to use Data Validation and entering the info
directing in the source box?

Thanks a bunch!
Kathy