Tooltips or Comment looking up a reference

[JonBoy]

Hi all, First port here.

Sorry for the vague title but I am unsure what the right words to use for my question are, hence it is difficult for me to search for a solution to.

What I am basically trying to do, is enter an abbreviation or initials into a spreadsheet and have the ability to then hover over that cell and it will tell me in a tooltip/comment what that abbreviation stands for...simply so that the spreadsheet doesnt get too large with all the full descriptions.

I know how to create a comment, but what I want to achieve is being able to just enter the abbr. and excel will automatically add the comment if it recognises that the abbr. has been defined in a list somewhere else.

eg

if i have a list on another sheet :

abc = alphabet

then somehow set it up so that whenever i enter 'abc' into any cell, a comment is automatically generated that displays the word 'alphabet', but abc remains the displayed bit in the cell.

Or if someone knows of another way to achieve the same goal...i.e. be able to enter abbr.s and keep them displayed to save space, but have the ability to hover to read what they mean.

Many thanks in advance.

Jon

[davesexcel]

Here is a site with a crazy amount of info on cell comments using VBA maybe you will be able to get some info out of it, it also has related links

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/ccomment.htm

[JonBoy]

Thanks Dave!

Looking at it now...

[JonBoy]

hmmmm

i think this is over my head...never played with functions before...

[Debra Dalgleish]

Instead of using popup comments, you could display the description in a
text box at the top of the worksheet. There's an example here:

http://www.contextures.com/excelfiles.html

Under Comments, look for 'Display Comment Text'

JonBoy wrote:
> Hi all, First port here.
>
> Sorry for the vague title but I am unsure what the right words to use
> for my question are, hence it is difficult for me to search for a
> solution to.
>
> What I am basically trying to do, is enter an abbreviation or initials
> into a spreadsheet and have the ability to then hover over that cell
> and it will tell me in a tooltip/comment what that abbreviation stands
> for...simply so that the spreadsheet doesnt get too large with all the
> full descriptions.
>
> I know how to create a comment, but what I want to achieve is being
> able to just enter the abbr. and excel will automatically add the
> comment if it recognises that the abbr. has been defined in a list
> somewhere else.
>
> eg
>
> if i have a list on another sheet :
>
> abc = alphabet
>
> then somehow set it up so that whenever i enter 'abc' into any cell, a
> comment is automatically generated that displays the word 'alphabet',
> but abc remains the displayed bit in the cell.
>
> Or if someone knows of another way to achieve the same goal...i.e. be
> able to enter abbr.s and keep them displayed to save space, but have
> the ability to hover to read what they mean.
>
> Many thanks in advance.
>
> Jon
>
>


--
Debra Dalgleish
Contextures
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html