Validation is Good Stuff...

I am currently teaching an Excel class to a fine group of intermediate-advanced users.  One of the topics we are reviewing is the many uses of Validation. 

Validation can be useful in many arenas, including the maintenance of Integrity of your data, (we’ve all heard of GIGO – Garbage In Garbage Out), convenient Drop Down Boxes, informative Popup Alerts, and much more.

Maintaining Integrity

If you know that only certain data should be entered in a range, you can easily control this by using one of the many controls in the Allow dialogue drop down.  You can control size or range of numbers, text considerations or, as in the example below, which words can be entered (in this case, True or False…).

Drop Down Boxes
Drop down boxes can add interactivity and professionalism to your worksheets.  By choosing List in the Allow box, you can select a range of cities, employees, customers, companies, whatever you find useful.  In the example below, as list of sales representatives was selected.

Popup Alerts

By using boxes included on the Input Message tab, you can create a Popup Message whenever a user clicks on a cell within the range this Validation is used.  This can be further useful in assuring that the proper information is being put into your database, and it helps jog the memory of the user entering the data.

Validation.  Many uses, many benefits.  Really Good Stuff!