Forum Discussion
autocomplete within a drop down list mac version
This answer is incomplete. The Windows ActiveX box does support autocomplete but the Mac combo box does not, as far as I know. There are many posts out there by Mac users looking for such a solution. There are some workarounds but they are kludgy.
How exactly are you suggesting implementing auto-complete in the combo-box?
- Wayne,
You misunderstood the question. it is not about Windows. it is about the dropdown list in Microsoft Excel using Microsoft Excel combo box.- You don't understand. It IS about Windows because the Mac version of Excel does not support ActiveX controls and they are not available. Your example spreadsheet does not work on a Mac because the ActiveX component is stripped out.
The dropdown box available in Mac Excel, unlike an ActiveX combo box, does not perform autocomplete.
- Hi Wayne, I was trying to have a dropdown list that references a product list from a different tab and then incorporate an autocomplete function on to it to you could type say three or for letters and get your product without typing the entire name
I was not able to find such a solution after quite a bit of searching.
The best I could find is a kludge but actually works fairly well:
1) In the sheet where you want the dropdown, place a link to the list that resides in another sheet. Put that link in as many rows as you need to capture the entire list. (You could alternatively just put the actual list on the worksheet, but linking to it is good enough.)
2) Put some entry into a continuous series of cells to connect your dropdown cell to the list. The series can be both vertical across multiple rows and horizontal across multiple columns. All that matters is that the cell-to-cell trail is continuous.
A single space is a good enough entry but if you use a space, I highly recommend filling the background of the cells or otherwise indicating somehow that these "connector" cells are important. It's extremely difficult to come back years later and figure out a worksheet that relies on cells having spaces in them, since you won't see the spaces unless you know to look for them.
3) Once your linked list is connected to your entry cell by this trail of intervening, non-empty cells, Excel's automatic auto-complete will kick in for your entry cell. You don't need validation or a dropdown box or anything, you just need to have autocomplete turned on, which I think is the default.
HI Wayne, thanks for your suggestion. Can you explain this in simpler terms for me ? I'm not getting it
