If you’re having a party this weekend, you can use Excel to plan the guest seating. And if you sent me an invitation, it hasn’t arrived yet!
In this example, you’ll enter the guest names on an Excel worksheet, then fill the tables by selecting names from data validation drop down lists. After you’ve selected a [...]

You added some data validation drop down lists to your Excel worksheet, to make it easier to enter the data. Later, you opened that workbook, and the data validation arrows were missing! What happened, and how do you get those arrows back?
Select the Cell
The data validation dropdown arrow only shows when you click on the [...]

At a client’s office last week, I was selecting a pricing option from a data validation drop down list. The worksheet was zoomed to 75%, so we could see more of the data, and the person watching over my shoulder asked, “How can you even read that?”
Good question. Sometimes the font in a data [...]

On Monday I described the horrible side effects of Christmas cookies, and posted an Excel Weight Loss Tracker workbook.
As Dick Kusleika pointed out in the comments, simply downloading the workbook doesn’t have any effect on your weight. Apparently it takes a bit of effort, including dietary changes and maybe some <gasp> exercise. Can’t Microsoft invent [...]

Garbage in, garbage out. You depend on Excel spreadsheets to show accurate data and analysis. Enter the wrong data and the results will be incorrect, and that could have a negative impact on your business or reputation.
Here are 3 ways to help safeguard your data entry. I’m sure you use a few other methods [...]

You’ve probably used an Excel data validation drop down list, where you can click the arrow, and select an item to fill the cell. In the worksheet shown below, you can select a month from the drop down, and it overwrites any previous selection in that cell.

Select Multiple Items From the Drop Down List
Instead [...]

You know how to create a drop down list in Excel, by using the Data Validation feature. Sometimes you get extra fancy, and make a drop down list that depends on the selection made in another list, using dependent data validation.

Dependent data validation works well, but there’s a loophole. In the screen shot below, I [...]

Roger Govier has created a sample workbook and instructions that show you how to create dynamic dependent data validation lists. His technique lets you create multiple levels of dependent data validation, without defining a named range for each list. Instead, Roger’s formula uses the INDEX function, with MATCH, to find a column heading, then shows [...]

In Excel, you can create a drop down Data Validation list, using a list from another workbook as the source.

However, for the data validation to work, the workbook that contains the list must be open, in the same instance of Excel. Users will have to open both the workbooks — the one with the drop [...]

Today I heard from someone who was having problems with data validation, in cells that were formatted in Percent Style. In the workbook, Enable automatic percent entry is turned on (Office button, Excel Options, Advanced, Editing options).
 
In the cells that are formatted as Percent Style, the percent sign automatically appears as you start [...]