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Really stupid question about Excel 2000

Abigail Blue

15:30 / 21.04.03

I'm not sure if this is the right board for this...

I'm trying to build a database, and I'm a little rusty.

The person who wants me to build this wants it done in Excel (ick ick ick), and she wants drop-down menus in some of the cells. Can this be done? I've tried looking on Microsoft Office 2000's Help site, but can't really find anything useful, and all of the online Excel tutorials I've found are really basic and don't cover this kind of thing.

Help? I've procrastinated WAY too long about starting this project, and I need to get a good chunk of it done ASAP...

Linus Dunce

16:38 / 21.04.03

Try searching for "list" in the help index. It looks like you need to make a form as well.

But the simple answer to any question about DB building in Excel is:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

But you know this. What about using a proper db format and Excel pivot tables for reports?

Abigail Blue

17:21 / 21.04.03

Thanks, Ignatius. I was afraid of an answer like that, but appreciate your help nonetheless.

Yeah, Excel is sooo terrible for any kind of DB work. I tried to convince her away from using it, but she was pretty determined. I'm now suffering terribly due to my lack of backbone. *sigh*

Tezcatlipoca

21:40 / 21.04.03

I'm with Ignatius on this one, although undoubtedly the virtue of Microsoft is its inter-program compatability. Access is a pretty powerful database utility that works by importing Excel data in table form, so can't you write up everything your boss wants in Excel, then just insert it into Access?

Abigail Blue

22:47 / 21.04.03

I'm all for using Access in this situation, believe me. Unfortunately, I'm not so much an employee as I am an outside consultant on this job. I've been hired to complete this project, and I have to do it to her specifications.

Access is just a better way of managing large amounts of information, but I have to go with what she's comfortable with. *sigh*

Thanks for the input, guys.

Red Cross Iodized Salt

03:26 / 22.04.03

Excel 2000 refers to drop-down lists / menus in forms as combo boxes. You can use VBA to create an ActiveX combo box, or you can just use a standard Form control if all you need is a list of options from which a single predefined selection can be made...

If the Forms toolbar is not visible, select View > Toolbars and check Forms

From the Forms toolbar, select Combo Box and drag to the desired location

Put the list of items you want to be available from the Combo Box on a separate sheet in the Workbook

Go back to the Combo Box. Right click (ctrl+click on a Mac) and select the 'Control' tab

Enter the range of cells that contain the list of items in the 'Input Range' field and the cell that you want to assign the selection to in the 'Cell Link' field

...and that's pretty much it. There might be an easier / quicker way to do this, but its been a while since I've done anything with Excel beyond simple spreadsheets.

Tezcatlipoca

05:43 / 22.04.03

I'm a little pressed for time to provide direct links to downloadable examples (I'll try to do so later if you still need them), but you may also find this site useful. As well as the tips and downloads sections, be sure to try some of the links on this pages, since they refer to other pages where you may find examples of what you're after.

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