Tech Tip of the Week

Data Validation: Drop down lists

For each cell, you can define in advance what type of contents are valid for that cell. This allows you to guide users through data entry in OpenOffice.org’s Spreadsheet ‘Calc’ by restricting cells to receive specific values and ranges.

For selected cells, a drop-down list of possible values can be defined. The first step in achieving this is to select the required cell and open the data validation dialog. In the Criteria tab of the validation dialog, the Allow option is itself a drop-down list. Lets say that List is selected from there. Now, with List selected, a text box appears which can be populated with the list of allowed values for the selected cell(s).

After closing the validation dialog, one can see that now one must select a value for the cell from the drop-down list was just created. It is also acceptable to leave it blank.