Special Edition Using Microsoft® Office XP

Restricting and Validating Data Entry for a Cell or Range

When designing a worksheet, you'll occasionally want to restrict the type of data users can enter in a specific cell or range. Excel lets you define data-validation rules for cells and ranges to do exactly that. Examples of useful applications include the following:

• In a list of recent sales results formatted to show only month and date, restrict entry in a specific column to only dates within the last month. This technique prevents users from inadvertently entering a date in the wrong month or year, or in the future.

• On a budget worksheet, require that the user enter a department name and restrict allowed entries to a specific list. You can add a drop-down arrow to a cell with this type ...