Auto complete text in a drop down list cell

Copper Contributor

Hi everyone, 

 

Trying to do a spreadsheet and figured out how to make the drop down list box (yay).

 

But I would like to have the option of auto completion of words when I type a few letters instead of scrolling down the list every single time (for the most frequent ones I use).

 

Is there a way I can do this please?

My automatic cell completion is turned on, and works for non-list cells.

 

Thanks to all the brains that can help me out :)

16 Replies

@Heather_Hagart 

Excel doesn't allows the drop down to Autocomplete, generally we use for Data Validation. 

 

Therefore you have to work with Combo box, is one of the Active X controls.

 

Please check this link,,, I've shown how to do it all about Autocomplete.

 

Hit this link 

@Rajesh_Sinha I followed along well until it said "reach to linked cell ..." sorry.

 

I have my Data on one sheet, and the form on the other.  How do I link it from sheet 3 (data) to be on the combo box on sheet 1?

 

Or no no?

The link I've show with my post has solution,,,, and it's properly elaborated,, unable to realize that where U got stuck,,, if possible better share the Workbook with me and let me examine it to Fix.
If you really want to do it in DropDown, here is a video and examples to download, everything simply explained by Microsoft.

Create a drop-down list
https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/office/create-a-drop-down-list-7693307a-59ef-400a-b769-c5402dce4...

I would be happy to know if I could help.

Nikolino
I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

@Heather_Hagart 

 

Here dropdown with ComboBox where it reacts to the letter input.

 

 

I would be happy to know if I could help.

 

Nikolino

I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

@Rajesh_Sinha 

 

Hi,

 

I am trying to use this, but the sheet I want it to autocomplete is a different sheet from the one where the list is.  So I have a column in August that I want to populate with employees names.  The list in in sheet settings under D2:D65.

I can't seem to make this work at all, and I need to be able to give me the employees quicker so I can do data entry on the August sheet. 

Can you make this work when I don't know VBA?

Thanks,

 

Liz

 

Without VBA this will hardly work,,, you do one thing,, upload the WB and mention in which column or cell you want to use it then I'll apply the VBA and send back the sheet to you ☺

@Rajesh_Sinha   Great!  I will do that tomorrow.  Thanks!  Liz

Have you tried with VLOOKUP, or even better, XLOOKUP to link different sheets? They worked great for me. Good luck with that :)
@Rajesh_Sinha I saw your reply here and wonder if you'd be able to add VBA to my file as well? I also would like to allow auto complete text in a drop down list cell. Thank you!

@Rajesh_Sinha 

i have succesed created a list combo box (Active X Control) and vba code :

 

Private Sub ComboBox1_Change()
ComboBox1.ListFillRange = "DropDownList"
Me.ComboBox1.DropDown
End Sub

 

and the combo box like this :

Abu_Syafiq_0-1646030433167.png

but if i want to select the list data below by arrow (on the keyboard), excel in error  like this :

Abu_Syafiq_1-1646030848323.png

 

how to solved this problem..?

 

You can try using a free Excel add-in.
Just google "Excel add-in called Search deList".
I'll give it a shot!

Thanks!

@Cangkir 

This "Search deList" add-in is actually pretty good. It gives you a unique, sorted & non-blank list in the combo box.
It also works without lag on large list, I tried it on about 12K rows of data.
Thank you for the info.

Hi,

This is rizwan shaikh from osmanabad i am user of microsoft excel from decades

could you add new feature of auto complete cell value and it should show me a list content in that column

 

this feature has in WPS speadsheet

 

This my suggestion or feedback for you

Thanking you 

my email is email address removed for privacy reasons

@Heather_Hagart 

In case anyone needs it, I just shared a new version of "Search deList" add-in, i.e Search_deList_v2.1.

Its function is to speed up the search in the data validation list. In any cell that has data validation (with type List) pressing ALT+RIGHT will open a User Form with a combobox. You can type multiple keywords (separated by a space) in the combobox to search items on the list.
By using this add-in, you don't need VBA to have this searchable combobox, so you can save your files as .xlsx.

 

This new version has some additional features, some of them:
- Several ways to search, like using AND or OR or LIKE operator , with or without keyword order.
- Sort the list by original order or ascending order.
- Widen or shorten the combobox width at run time.
- Insert multiple entries into the cell.

 

search mode default.jpg

You can find it here (please check post #81):

https://www.mrexcel.com/board/threads/i-created-an-excel-add-in-called-search-delist-to-create-searc...