Drop-down menus & teachers' reports

**Rick_B** · 04-27-2005, 02:26 PM

I'm a beginner at using drop-down menus in sheets. I have a sheet that lists students' names down in rows and their attendance for the semester across the columns.
Is it possible to create a drop-down menu that would:
- allow me to choose between all of my students?
- report only certain ranges of his/her attendance, say, one month at a time?
- allow me to print off those attendance "progress reports?"

Is there an easier way to create such a report?

Thanks.

**swatsp0p** · 04-27-2005, 02:38 PM

You can use the Data>Filter>AutoFilter function to allow filtering by specific student.

However, isolating by date is a different challenge. Can you be more specific as to what format your columns are in? e.g. one column for each date, week, etc.

Let's assume Row 1 is your headers: A1=Name, B1=???, C1=???

AutoFilter let's you choose from a dropdown one (or more) students, hiding all the rows for the others. You could then manually hide the unwanted date columns, leaving only the data you want. This can then be printed.

More information would be helpful to best suggest a solution.

**Rick_B** · 04-27-2005, 03:28 PM

Bruce, Thanks for your reply.

The sheet is arranged with headers on row 1 with total hours of attendance (5 hrs is max) listed by date "month/day" (C1:L1). After every five days, the "wk" column totals their attendance for that week.

A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 F1 G1 H1 I1 J1 K1 L1..
Last Name First Name 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7 wk 1/10 1/11 1/12 1/13
Doe John 4 5 4.5 5 5 23.5 5 5 4 4
Doe Jane 5 0 5 5 4.5 19.5 5 4.5 5 5
Edison Thomas 5 5 5 5 5 25 5 5 5 5

I'd like to be able to display a report that shows me only John's monthly attendance (which excludes the "wk" totals columns H, N, etc).

Is that any clearer? If not, I can post an attachment. Thanks.

**Rick_B** · 04-27-2005, 04:24 PM

Sorry, my formatting for the thread didn't turn out too well.
I made a sample sheet that I've attached.
Dang! I tried to attach it, but for some reason, it doesn't accept excel files; I tried to use a screen capture of it, but now my file is too big (over 100KB). You'll have to decipher things on the thread above. That stinks.

Thanks again.

**swatsp0p** · 04-28-2005, 09:33 AM

Hi, Rick. No problem with the format. I was able to copy/paste and use Text to Columns to put your data in a usable format.

Auto-Filter is one way to accomplish your task. I was able to get to John Doe's daily numbers with only a few mouse clicks. One to Filter Last name to Doe, one to filter First name to John (only needed when more than one entry per last name), and finally a click to hide the 'wk' column. That which remained was printed out.

Another option, assuming only one row per name, is to hide columns you don't want to print, place a page break at each row, use Row1 as a "Row to repeat at Top", and simply print the entire document. Each row would be one page.

Good Luck