Thank you for the response. However, this is not a cell drop-down, it is a
combo box. They behave totally differently. The cell drop-down is data
validation. The combo box is a control added from the Forms Toolbox. It sits
on top of the spreadsheet. That's why there is a reference cell for the
result of the selection. It is the reference cell that I'm trying to bypass
without locking it.

"JLatham" wrote:

I'm in a bit of a quandry over this one - either you want to use the
cell/dropdown list or you don't. It seems to be a case of you can't have
your cake and eat it too.

Unless you can be more specific regarding when it should be and should not
be made accessible, I don't see a way around it:

If you lock it, you can't use it. If you unlock it, you don't seem to want
it to be used.

There is a way of using the worksheet's _SelectionChange() event handler to
detect when the cell is selected and then force focus out of that cell into
another - but if you do that, then you can't ever get into it to change the
list choice. You might be able to base that action upon the contents of some
other cell in your form; i.e. if cell X1 has some value in it (indicating
that they've started filling out the form) then use the bypass routine, but
if cell X1 is empty, then permit using it?

"berniean" wrote:

Greetings, I have an Excel form that has a combo box linked to a list of
items. When the user selects an item from the list, the result is the row
number of the item in the reference cell. In order for this to work on a
protected sheet, that cell has to be unlocked. I don't want the user to be
able to tab to that cell while filling out the form. Is there a way to bypass
that cell without locking it? Locking it causes an error when attempting to
make a selection from the drop-down. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Bernie