Google Sheets is the most convenient approach for working on a spreadsheet. The Google Sheets can be managed online as well as offline. Google Sheets comes with many new helpful features among which one is the drop-down menu.
This blog will help the users to understand the method of creating and editing the drop-down menu in Google Sheets. Let’s start with the understanding of the drop-down menu in Google Sheets.
What is the Drop-down Menu in Google Sheets?
A drop-down menu is a graphical user interface (GUI) element that offers different options. When the user clicks on the button, a drop-down menu appears with several options. Users can click on any of the options to perform the particular operation.
Commonly these drop-down menus can be seen on different websites. This drop-down menu is also available in Google Sheets.
In the next section, the method of creating and editing the Google Sheet has been explored with some easy examples.
How to Create the Google Sheet Drop-Down Menu?
To create the Google Sheet Drop-down menu, different steps have to be followed. These steps are explained in detail.
Step 1: Select the Cell To Create the Drop-Down Menu
First, select the cell where a drop-down menu is supposed to be. For example, we have a Google Sheet of the “School Data”. In this sheet, a drop-down menu is supposed to be added in the “Admission Status” column. Select the cell adjacent to the “John”:
Step 2: Select the “Data Validation”
There are two different approaches to selecting “Data Validation”. Both approaches are explained to select the “Data Validation” in Google Sheets.
Approach 1: This is the most used approach for selecting the “Data Validation” in Google Sheets. Select the “Data” option in the “Menu Bar” of Google Sheets. A drop-down menu will appear, select “Data Validation”:
Approach 2: Another method is to right-click on the selected cell and then choose the “Dropdown” to open the side-bar:
Step 3: Customise the Dropdown Menu
In the above approaches, a customization menu for the drop-down menu will appear. A screen will appear similar to the below figure:
Edit the names of the Options and then click on the Done button. For example, two different statuses for admission status has been defined:
Note: If the drop-down menu is supposed to apply to all the cells of the column, then define the range in the first option. For example, if we want to create the dropdown menu from cell C3 to C6, we have defined the “C3:C6”:
Now the dropdown menu is created for the entire defined range of the cells:
Click on the cell and a drop-down menu will appear with two defined options:
Select the options to fill all the cells of the column:
This is the method by which a drop-down menu can be created in Google Sheets.
How to Edit a Google Sheet Drop-Down Menu?
To edit a Google Sheet Drop-Down menu, either choose the creation methods and in “Data validation rules” make the changes in the Drop-Down menu. Or you can display the drop-down menu, and then click on the “pencil” to make the changes:
The “Data validation rules” menu will appear where the changes can be made:
Add Another Option: For example, we add one more item in the drop-down menu of the “Pending” status. Click on the “Add another item”:
Then define the third option of the drop-down menu:
Also, define any colors for the different options and then click on the “Done” button:
Now the three statuses have been assigned to the drop-down menu:
All the options have different colors:
Delete the Options: For example, we want to delete the “Pending” option from the drop-down menu of Google Sheets. Open the “Data validation rules” and then click on the “bin icon” adjacent to the “Pending”:
The option “Pending” has been deleted:
Advanced Options: There are two advanced options that can be defined by clicking on the “Advanced options” in the “Data validation rules” section:
You can choose behavior on the response if invalid data has been chosen. Either display the “warning” or “reject the response” by selecting the option:
Also, the display style can be selected from the three different options. These options include the “Chip”, “Arrow”, and “Plain text”:
Delete the Drop-Down Menu: The entire drop-down menu can be deleted by clicking on the “Remove rule” in the “Data validation rules”:
These are the possible methods to edit the drop-down menu in Google Sheets.
Conclusion
To create the Drop-Down Menu, click on “Data” then “Data Validation” and define the options. To edit the Drop-Down menu, open the “Data validation rules” and make the changes. The creation and editing of the drop-down menu in Google Sheets have been explained with the example in the blog.
