Copying data validation settings - MS-Excel Tutorial
Copying data validation settings
After assigning your data validation criteria to a particular cell, you can then copy these criteria to all the cells in the vicinity that need to use the same restrictions. To do this, you follow these steps:
- Copy the cell with the data validation to the Clipboard.
(Choose Edit → Copy or press Ctrl+C.) - Select the cell range into which to copy the data validation criteria.
- Choose Edit → Paste Special or to open the Paste Special dialog box.
- Click the Validation option button and click OK.
For example, to copy the data validation criteria that cause the cell to display the cities drop-down list box from the original cell B3 down the column to the range B4:B15, I copied the contents of B3 to the Clipboard and then selected the range B4:B15. Next, I opened the Paste Special dialog box, clicked the Validation option button, and clicked OK. As a result, all the cells from B3 down B15 use the same data validation criteria. When you put the cell pointer in any of those cells, a drop-down button appears on the right side of the cell. When clicked, this button reveals the city drop-down list.