How to use dropdown lists in Google Sheets

The Street

Creating dropdown lists in Google Sheets can help you better sort and prioritize items. Here's a step-by-step guide.

Transcript

00:00 We're going to create our spreadsheet by typing in sheets.new in the URL.

00:05 And from there, we're going to increase the size of the text to 200% so it makes it easier to read.

00:15 And increase the size or the width of the cell.

00:19 And then we're going to rename our spreadsheet or name it as to weather.

00:25 W-E-A-T-H-E-R. And then go back to A1.

00:30 We're going to type in a question. "Did it rain today?"

00:36 And this will be followed by a simple yes or no question.

00:41 Which we will list as B1.

00:45 And after doing that, we're going to go back into the menu at the top.

00:50 We're going to select Insert and then click on Dropdown.

00:56 At the right of the screen, there's a sidebar that appears.

01:01 And it corresponds to what we're going to target as B1, which is now shaded in grey.

01:09 And the sidebar is titled Data Validation Rules.

01:16 And Apply to Range is the targeted range, which is B1.

01:21 And then the criteria is a dropdown.

01:25 And it provides you with two options.

01:29 There could be more if you want to add.

01:32 But for option one, we're going to type in yes, Y-E-S.

01:37 And then for option two, we're going to type in no, N-O.

01:42 And those are your two options.

01:45 We're going to click on Done to capture the results.

01:52 And the sidebar recognizes it as a value.

01:58 And we go back to B1.

02:00 And we go into the icon that drops down.

02:04 It's either yes or no.

02:06 And then we're going to click on Yes.

02:09 And then yes appears.

02:12 But you can always switch it back to no.

02:15 And no appears.

02:17 And then you can switch it back to yes again.

02:19 So that is a simple version of creating an InCell dropdown on Google Sheets.

02:27 Okay, we are going to create a dropdown based on a range.

02:32 We're going to go to our previous spreadsheet titled Weather.

02:36 And from there, we are going to go to A3 and type in the question, "Was the rain heavy?"

02:45 And we're going to put our response in B3.

02:50 And this will be the same as before with a simple answer, yes or no.

02:55 And so in order to do that, we are going to go to Create a Sheet.

03:02 It will be a Sheet 2.

03:04 And this is where we'll put our answers.

03:07 But we're going to go back to Sheet 1.

03:12 And from there, select B3 and then go to the menu, Insert, and then Dropdown.

03:19 And it's the same that appears as before, the sidebar.

03:25 And then we're going to select Dropdown from a range in the criteria.

03:31 And then as you can see, the targeted range is Sheet 1, B3.

03:39 And we're going to go back to Sheet 2.

03:42 And we're going to type in simple answers, yes in A1 and no in A2 cells.

03:50 And then we're going to go back to the sidebar.

03:53 And then under Dropdown from a range, we are going to go and select Data Range.

04:00 We click on that, the icon, where it appears as a grid.

04:04 And then we're going to select a data range, which refers to A1 and A2.

04:09 So we're going to highlight that, and it automatically appears in the Select a Data Range window.

04:16 And then from there on the sidebar, you can see that it appears as options, yes or no.

04:24 And then to make things more visually appealing, we can assign colors to it.

04:30 We can assign green for yes and red for no.

04:36 And those will appear as shaded areas as well as the corresponding colors in the text.

04:47 So the targeted area, Sheet 1, B3, based on the range that we have listed there.

04:56 And so all we need to do now is click on Done.

04:59 And then go back to Sheet 1 where we have the question, "Was the rain heavy?"

05:07 And under B3, we have the area shaded in gray with the arrow pointed down to select your response.

05:16 We click in Yes, and it's in green.

05:19 And then we can click on No, and that is in red lettering.

05:24 So go back to Yes, and that is your drop-down based on a data range.

05:32 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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