How to add a drop-down list in Google Sheets to group and organize data in your spreadsheet

Devon Delfino

Nov 19, 2019, 19:48 IST

How to add a drop-down list in Google Sheets to group and organize data in your spreadsheet

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It's easy to add a drop-down list in your Google Sheets in order to sort and organize data.

You can add a drop-down list in Google Sheets to better organize data within your spreadsheet.
To add a drop-down list, you'll have to use the Data Validation function in Google Sheets.
Here's how to add a drop-down list in Google Sheets, from either a list of items or a specified range.
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Google Sheets is basically a free, collaborative version of Microsoft Excel.

And even though free usually means you can't do as much, Google Sheets does still allow you to add drop-down lists to your spreadsheets.

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Here's how to do it.

How to add a drop-down list in Google Sheets

1. Open your Google Sheets project, or create a new one by going to sheets.new.

2. Select the cell, or cells, where you want to add a drop-down list.

3. Right-click into one of these cells.

4. Select "Data Validation."

1 HOW TO ADD DROPDOWN LIST GOOGLE SHEETS

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Click on Data validation.

5. Click into the "Criteria" section and select either "List from a range" or "List of items" and add your items, as appropriate.

2 HOW TO ADD DROPDOWN LIST GOOGLE SHEETS

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Format your drop-down list and click Save.

6. Make sure that "Show dropdown list in cell" is ticked, and then click "Save."

3 HOW TO ADD DROPDOWN LIST GOOGLE SHEETS

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Check the box and click Save.

After that, you should see a down-carrot appear within the cell, or cells, you specified.

When you click into that, you'll see the options you added - either a list from a range or a list of items - and you can then select from those options to set that cell.