Pete, Thanks for the info but I need to keep this as simple as possible. If
I need to add another column, it will confuse more people than help and I am
also restricted to a certain format (gov't regulations!). The speadsheet is
otherwise simple and basically a duplicate of a preprinted form. I'm trying
to move people over to the electronic version and want to make it as user
friendly as possible. There is only one column that is suitable for a
dropdown list. If there is no other way to accomplish what I want, I'll just
use a list of codes.
--
Thanks for your help
Russ


"Pete_UK" wrote:

If you put your drop-down to the right of the Invoice so it does not
get printed, then you can have it select from the descriptions, and
then in the cell where you want the code to appear you can either have
a VLOOKUP formula or an INDEX/MATCH combination, depending on how your
data is laid out.

Post back with details of your data table if you need further
guidance.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Nov 25, 8:19 pm, Russ G wrote:
Hi, i am new to this group and am a relative beginner without formal
training. I've created an invoice for work and I have one column with a
dropdown list that I created using the great info from:

http://www.contextures.com/xlDataVal01.html

What I am trying to do is enter a billing code which is a number several
digits long. I was able to create this using the data validation function.
However, it requires the user to remember which billing code to use. Each
code has a descriptive name (very easy to remember) but it is not necessary
to put that name in the invoice, only the code number. I would like the
dropdown list to contain the descriptive name, but when you select the name,
instead of the name being entered in the cell, it enters the code number.

For example, the code for "repair" might be "3A245134", it is easier to
remember "repair" than the number. So, from the dropdown list, one of the
selections would be "repair". You select repair and the number "3A245134"
appears in the cell.

Is there a simple way to do this?
--
Thanks for your help
Russ