Drop down box indicator help for novice

Copper Contributor
I am making some drop down boxes but the drop down box arrow is not there when I click on another box in the Excel sheet. How do I make it show all the time so people know there is a drop down box there? Sorry for such a novice question. I thought I had decent excel skills until I started to do this and now I feel like I need to take excel 101 again. :)
5 Replies

@Workinprogress 

That is how a dropdown (data validation list) works. The dropdown arrow will only appear when the cell with dropdown is selected. To help the user to know that the cells have a dropdown in them, you may format those cells to have a visual clue for dropdowns.

 

It you have inserted the dropdown lists in few cells only and want the dropdown arrow to appear all the time, you may consider inserting the ComboBox from the Form Controls and specify the Input Range and the Linked Cells.

Thank you Subodh for your reply. Where do I find the combo box in form controls? Sorry.... really novice to using drop downs.

@Workinprogress 

They can be inserted through Developer Tab and if you don't have Developer Tab on the ribbon, here is how to show the Developer Tab.

 

And this is how you may insert a ComboBox on the Sheet and set it's properties.

Thanks! That helped.

@Workinprogress 

You're welcome!

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