clearing blanks in drop-down list

I have a spreadsheet with a "Administrative" sheet in it and form sheets.
The administrative sheet contains lists that in turn populate drop-downs in
the form sheets.

Since the spreadsheet will be administrated by people who don't necessarily
know much about excel, I have a column of about 30 rows named for each list.
The administrator can enter drop-down list data in each list. However, there
will never be 30 items in the list. There may be only 5 or six. Now for my
two questions:

1. How do I only show non-blank items in the drop-down?

2. How do I ensure that the first item shown in the drop-down is the top
item in the list?

Thanks in advance.

Richard, try using data validation - allow - list, and check ignore blanks
on the same dialog box (Excel 2003). Also, check out the Contextures site:
http://www.contextures.com/xlDataVal02.html

--
Sincerely, Michael Colvin


"Richard Walker" wrote:

> I have a spreadsheet with a "Administrative" sheet in it and form sheets.
> The administrative sheet contains lists that in turn populate drop-downs in
> the form sheets.
>
> Since the spreadsheet will be administrated by people who don't necessarily
> know much about excel, I have a column of about 30 rows named for each list.
> The administrator can enter drop-down list data in each list. However, there
> will never be 30 items in the list. There may be only 5 or six. Now for my
> two questions:
>
> 1. How do I only show non-blank items in the drop-down?
>
> 2. How do I ensure that the first item shown in the drop-down is the top
> item in the list?
>
> Thanks in advance.