format cell with drop down menu?

**benjii19** · 08-04-2010, 08:49 AM

Hi all,

I've got a spreadsheet where I want to create a drop down box to change the colour of a cell but not alter the text that is in it.

I know you can make a drop down list for example "complete, incomplete" then you can use conditional formatting to have complete be green in colour and incomplete be red. This however isn't exactly what I want as I don't want text to overwrite what is in the cell.

thanks

**martindwilson** · 08-04-2010, 08:59 AM

???? use a dropdown in say a1 with say text red,green.blue in it then conditional format the cell you want with say =a1="red"

**benjii19** · 08-04-2010, 09:19 AM

yes but that text (Red,Green,Blue) would delete the text in the original cell. All i want is to be able to alter the colour of the cell.

The reasons for this is that our warehouse people have a location spreadsheet for wheelchairs (each cell is a wheelchair) we want the admin team to highlight the chairs that need pulling down. So the info in the cells doesn't change just the colour.

**JBeaucaire** · 08-04-2010, 09:33 AM

You will need another cell then.

Create a new column called "PULL" and put a new drop down in that column. Based on the changes you make in THAT column, use conditional formatting to change the color of the other cells you're wanting. CF formulas can look at other cells, too.