I need a little help. I have created an interactive spreadsheet in excel. I
am using combo boxes to expedite data entry. The lists for these boxes
reside in other workbooks. The problem that I am having is that the other
workbooks have to be open in order for the lists to populate in the combo
box. Is there any way to get around this? I do not want users to have open
both workbooks in order to do the work in one.

You could take a worksheet in the current workbook and set up a database
query to the workbook containing the lists for the drop down boxes.
This way you could refresh the list upon opening the workbook and make
your drop down boxes take the data from the sheet in the same workbook.


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Excelenator


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I have thought about that and it would work. However the current workbook
needs to be completely streamlined. The users are not very PC savy, that's
why I have included the combo box to eliminate any user error. In addition,
I do not want them to have access to the list that populates the combo box,
for fear that they may "accidentally" change something. My goal is for the
end user to open one excel file, scroll through a combo box to find the
correct id, that id then populates the rest of the row with the corresponding
information (using index(match) formulas), and then the user moves to the
next row in the sheet. No decision's, no errors. Any ideas on how to make
that happen.

"Excelenator" wrote:


You could take a worksheet in the current workbook and set up a database
query to the workbook containing the lists for the drop down boxes.
This way you could refresh the list upon opening the workbook and make
your drop down boxes take the data from the sheet in the same workbook.


--
Excelenator


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