Employee Absence Schedule

Copper Contributor

I can't seem to get all my employees to show up under the drop down menu after I have added them to the list.  They show up on the Employee Name tab but when I go to add them to the month that I am working with there are only 5 listed.  Help!

 

Thanks,

Lainey

10 Replies

Hello Lainey,

 

Would you mind sharing your excel workbook? I can't quite figure out why you might be experiencing this issue and I'd like to take a closer look.

 

**Please remember to remove any confidential information

 

Thank you!

PReagan

@PReagan  How do I share it??

@Lainey3,

 

In the reply screen, scroll to the bottom and you will see a small paper clip icon. Click this to add a file.

 

PReagan

@PReagan

The data entered was just dummy info...thanks for looking at it. 

@Lainey3,

 

It looks like the problem was that the source of your data validation list was ='Employee Names'!$B$4:$B$8 when instead it should have been ='Employee Names'!$B$4:$B$12. I fixed this issue but only for the August tab. You may copy the cells from the August tab to the other monthly tabs if you would like to have the same list in each tab.

 

Hope this helps!
PReagan

@PReagan 

How do I copy the cells?  Thanks so much!

 

Lainey

@Lainey3,

 

Select the cell you would like to copy and hold Ctrl+C. Then select the cell you would like to paste it in and hold Ctrl+P.

 

If this helped please mark my response as the Best Response!

 

Thanks!
PReagan

I admonish you to instead create a dynamic named range for your employee names. For example, if A1 is Employee, and the names of employees are listed below, starting in A2, define “Employees” as a dynamic range with this formula:
=$A$2:INDEX($A:$A,COUNTA($A:$A))
Thereafter, enter this in the source box of your drop-down list:
=Employees

@Lainey3 

You have done just about everything right.  It is not your fault that Microsoft has not got around to recognising structured references (here, the Table 'EmployeeName') for validation lists.

All you have to do is hide the structured reference within a name.  In this case I defined a new Name 'EmployeeValidation' to refer to the Table 'EmployeeName'. 

 

This definition means that the list is dynamic and the validation list remains pointing to the entire table even when additional names are added.

@Twifoo 

I thought of using a similar solution. Very clean. But, it doesn't work for a small business with fairly frequent employee turnover. The individual monthly list of employees is not necessarily the same.