Page 90 - Excel Timesaving Techniques for Dummies

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Information Please!
all the cells from B3 down B15 use the same data val- Because the All option button underneath the
idation criteria. When you put the cell pointer in any Data Validation option is automatically selected
of those cells, a drop-down button appears on the by default, Excel selects all the cells and cell
right side of the cell. When clicked, this button ranges in the worksheet that have some type of
reveals the city drop-down list. data validation criteria assigned to them.
4. Use the Enter or Tab key to move the cell
Finding cells using data validation pointer around the selection from cell to cell
and from cell range to cell range.
Most data validation settings that you assign to cells
are invisible. (Okay, the List setting may be the 5. To find out what type of data validation a par-
ticular cell in the selected range uses, choose
exception here, but even the List setting is invisible
Data➪Validation and check out its criteria on
when the cell pointer isn’t in the cell.) To help you
the Settings tab.
locate the cells in the active worksheet that use
some sort of data validation criteria, you can use the
Go To feature to find (and select) them: In a spreadsheet that uses many different
types of data validation settings, you can find
1. Press F5 or Ctrl+G to open the Go To dialog box. all the cells that use the same criteria. To do so,
position the cell pointer in a cell that you know
2. Click the Special button to open the Go To uses the criteria you want to find, open the
Special dialog box. Go To Special dialog box, click both the
Data Validation and Same option buttons,
3. Click the Data Validation option button and and click OK.
click OK, as shown in Figure 14-5.

Information Please!

The only problem with data validation is that
because it’s invisible to spreadsheet users, many
times the only way they know they’ve hit a cell that
uses it is when they try to make what the cell now
considers an invalid entry. When anybody tries to
complete an entry with text or a value that is ver-
boten in the cell, Excel beeps at them and then dis-
plays an alert dialog box with the following
unhelpful message:

The value you entered is not valid.
A user has restricted the value that can
be entered into this cell.

The user can then click the Retry button and try to
put something in the cell that Excel does find accept-
able, or he or she can click the Cancel button and
• Figure 14-5: Finding all the cells in the worksheet that use forget the whole thing.
data validation.