Excel Drop Down Menu Question

[OrbitzXT]

I'm toying around with a project for work. We're trying to make an Excel spreadsheet that has a list of parts that employees would sort of use to build an order form. It's coming along nicely and works fairly well with the touch screen tablet we have, but I had a question. At the moment, when you highlight a cell that has a drop down list of choice, a small box with a down triangle appears in the bottom right. You click that, then the list of items appears. Is there anyway I can make it so that when you click the cell the drop down menu appears? This would make working with the spreadsheet on the tablet many times easier.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

Nightmare. You dont want "cell select" to cause a drop-down. I do understand that cell-click might be useful though. Can you imagine the same spreadsheet on your desktop, and as you move around with your cursor keys, these drop-downs keep opening, grabbing focus, and... and making you jump into them and needed to escape out? Imagine selecting multiple cells with the SHIFT or with the mouse, or indeed via touch? What then...

For the most important inputs, why not have a macro-button or VBA object that, when clicked, gives you a list?

Are you working in VBA? If no, and KISS, then to answer your question, you cant.

 

[OrbitzXT]

Nightmare. You dont want "cell select" to cause a drop-down. I do understand that cell-click might be useful though. Can you imagine the same spreadsheet on your desktop, and as you move around with your cursor keys, these drop-downs keep opening, grabbing focus, and... and making you jump into them and needed to escape out? Imagine selecting multiple cells with the SHIFT or with the mouse, or indeed via touch? What then...

For the most important inputs, why not have a macro-button or VBA object that, when clicked, gives you a list?

Are you working in VBA? If no, and KISS, then to answer your question, you cant.

This spreadsheet is being created specifically for use with a tablet PC. I don't think the tablet's scrolling will cause problems. I'd at least like to try it and see how bad it really is. My boss is having me create this and envisions it this way, so I at least want him to see it for himself and if it's no good we'll approach it a different way. So is cell select possible? And if so how?

I'm an Excel novice and don't know much about VBA, though I have begun googling it to see how I can make use of it for this little project.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

You have to code in VBA to do this: make a cell select event do something... But I really do advise against it. Much better to program a button, either in VBA or as a macro button.

Sorry I can't help you with the VBA code, it has been a few years since I did any VBA programming.

 

[OrbitzXT]

The button idea seems interesting. Might you be able to point me in the direction of where to find the VBA code for that?

 

[Completely Bonkers]

Here are a few links I just looked up for you. If, after reading them, you think you've got the idea... go for it! If it all looks gobbledygook then keep it simple and stick with what you currently have.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/141689
http://www.excel-vba.com/excel-vba-contents.htm
http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-106411-excel-dropdown-issues-using-macro
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/community/aspnet/66/10053838/drop-down-macro-to-link-to-a-sheet.aspx
http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/assign-macros.htm
http://www.mrexcel.com/tip068.shtml
http://www.fontstuff.com/vba/vbatut03.htm