Using Excel 2003. I have created several drop down options using Validation
lists. My question is can I have the program autoselect several options from
other validation lists based on my selection of another validation list?

For example, I have drop down lists A, B, and C. Each with 3 selections.
So instead of changing Lists A, B, and C seperatly, can I have B, and C
automatically go to selection 2 when I select A2?

Hopefully that makes sense.

If lists B and C are always triggered from the selection in list A, why not
replace B and C dropdowns with IF statements or VLOOKUP:

=IF(A2="Blue","Beige",IF(A2="Red","Stone","Black") )

-OR-

=VLOOKUP(A2,othersheet!A1:B1000,2,FALSE)

The IF statement simply checks the values in A and, if it finds a match,
sets the value in B. But that can be awkward and hard to update if you have
lots of possible combinations. Better is a VLOOKUP which checks a reference
list elsewhere (in this case, on another workheet I named "othersheet") and
returns the value on the second column (that's the "2") when it finds a match
for A2 in the first column.

For column C, expand the reference list to three columns (A1:C1000) and use
a similar formula to grab the matching value in the third column:

=VLOOKUP(A2,othersheet!A1:B1000,3,FALSE)

HTH

"KC" wrote:

Using Excel 2003. I have created several drop down options using Validation
lists. My question is can I have the program autoselect several options from
other validation lists based on my selection of another validation list?

For example, I have drop down lists A, B, and C. Each with 3 selections.
So instead of changing Lists A, B, and C seperatly, can I have B, and C
automatically go to selection 2 when I select A2?

Hopefully that makes sense.

If lists B and C are always triggered from the selection in list A, why not
replace B and C dropdowns with IF statements or VLOOKUP:

Lists B & C are not ALWAYS triggered, only sometimes. I'd still like to
maintain control over them if I need to manually change them. Can I retain
this with a VLOOKUP?

Oh, that makes more sense than what I was inferring. You want "default"
values to show up in B and C, based on what gets selected in A, but still the
ability to override them. My suggested IF or VLOOKUP solutions could still
work, but that would mean those cells would start off with formulas in them
that would be overwritten by data if you selected another option from the
drop-down. Maybe someone else has a better idea.


"KC" wrote:

If lists B and C are always triggered from the selection in list A, why not
replace B and C dropdowns with IF statements or VLOOKUP:

Lists B & C are not ALWAYS triggered, only sometimes. I'd still like to
maintain control over them if I need to manually change them. Can I retain
this with a VLOOKUP?