ComboBox to accept user input

Excel 2010 running under Windows7. I have added a ComboBox to a chart via Developer/Insert. I have it working in the drop-down list mode, but what I really need is for it to accept user input. How do I do that? I expected that feature to be something on the format control options didn't find anything there. If I need to do it through VBA, that is fine but so far I haven't figured it out.

Since I don't need the drop down list, I thought I could use the Text Field form control from the Developer/Insert path but for some reason it is ghosted out.

Any help is appreciated.

Hello
If you want a text box to enter user input then you'll have to use the Active X controls under Developer/Insert.

Hope this helps

Hi
Yes it would certainly help if you could upload a sample file, so myself or other forum members can get a firm idea of the problem. A sample with no sensitive data should suffice. I find that members who post an example file often get more help because a picture (or workbook) paints a thousand words.

DBY

I am getting an error when I try to upload the xlsm file, size 836K. What is the size limit? The FAQ section says there are allowable extensions and sizes but does not say what that size limit is.

No luck. I re-sampled the file to get it down to 202K and then zipped it down to 197K. Still errors out and won't save.

Hello Robert
I see you're having trouble uploading your file. You should be able to load files up to 1,000K in excel formats. Have you tried uploading your reduced file without it zipped? Maybe it's the Zip format causing a problem.

DBY

I have tried both zipped and unzipped. But will try again. Still failed and I get an error on Excel Forum of 500

[IOErrorEvent type= “ioError” bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2 text=”Error #2038”]

I may try sending it from my home computer just in case something is preventing the up load from my work computer.

Here is a sample file, 9 columns by 5192 rows. There are blank rows at 7, 2992, 3220 caused by gaps in time.

The controls are two sliders, one to pick the starting point in the graph and the other to select the number of rows to be included. The button "default" runs a macro to set the graph x-axis limits to their normal fixed defaults while the "custom" button sets the x-axis limits to automatic. The combobox on the right was my first attempt at allowing the user enter x-axis limits.

The two slider controls refer to cells $C$1 and $C$8 on sheet GC. Right now as saved they refer to a starting row of 1205 and an ending row of 4720 (the sum of C1 and C8). If you click on the Zoom slider control right arrow it will give an ending row of 4750 and rescale the graph to start at 00:00. That is puzzling behavior since the blank lines are within the first limits and that doesn't change when the additional data is included.

Anyway, back to the original question, should I be able to put Active X controls on the chart or can I only use them on the data sheet?

Thanks in advance for any help

Thanks for the example, it does do what I wanted it to do.

Last night I started down a different path and that was to use the slider controls to pick the time out of column B. That is then used in a macro to set the x-axis limits. Not sure yet which method I will use in the end but in any case, I have learned something more about Excel. I will try to post an example sheet when I close this out.

I still can't believe you can put Active-X controls on a chart. I blame Bill Gates!

Yes it does seem strange, that appears to be the case. But maybe some charting guru on the forum knows the way. Look forward to seeing your finished product. Sorry I couldn't be more help but I think your charting knowledge is greater than mine.
Regards
DBY