In fact, companies from hospitals and insurance carriers to banks and more use drop-down lists, check boxes, combo lists, and/or radio buttons to minimize typing and user errors. To update the drop-down list, we need to create named ranges in Excel. It can be particularly useful in performing financial modeling and analysis by incorporating scenarios and making a spreadsheet more dynamic. This is how most wholesale and retail companies handle their product lines. An Excel drop down list is a data validation function that allows users to select an option from a list of choices. This works very well for ordering and inventory purposes because it divides all the products into manageable categories. This allows you to select a product category from the main menu drop-down list box (such as Beverages), then display all the related products from the submenu (dependent) drop-down list box (such as Apple Juice, Coffee, etc.). If it is not shown, click on File, Options, Customize Ribbon tab and check Developer. This is especially useful for fields that require specific information fields that have long or complex data that’s hard to spell or fields where you want to control the responses.Ĭreating dependent drop-down lists (when combined with an INDIRECT function) is another benefit. To insert a drop-down list you must have the Developer tab. Drop-down lists in Microsoft Excel (and Word and Access) allow you to create a list of valid choices that you or others can select for a given field.

Add a drop down list in excel