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One of the ten dos and don'ts I always recommend to anyone who uses Excel as a database is "use data validation". Whereas it can be used to reject invalid dates or to restrict the values that you can enter, I'll kick this off describing a quick way to create a drop-down list containing specific text entries. That way you can benefit from Excel's powerful built-in tools to quickly summarise information, saving you countless hours consolidating, for example, inconsistent county entries such as Cambridgeshire, Cambs, CB etcetera.
Here's how:
In future, click on the drop-down arrow or use the ALT + down arrow trick I wrote about in tip 604 (see tip_604.php) to select the appropriate entry from the drop-down list.
Finally, if you were wondering what the other nine of the ten dos and don'ts are ...
By the way, if you want to know more about managing and summarising your
data why not book an hour virtual training. I'm using Zoom, which is easy to
set up. If you've never used Zoom and are a bit worried we could run a
quick, free test.
Alternatively, why not book yourself on the next half-day face-to-face
session, planned for 7 August; see msexctables.php
Related tips
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* Unless stated otherwise, these tips were written for Microsoft Office 2010.
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