List box

SAPHIRE contains list boxes and pop-up menus. Items are selected by placing the cursor on the item and clicking the left mouse button. Multiple items are selected by holding down the control (CTRL) key and clicking the items. 

Open the Windows File Manager and locate the desired input file by selecting its directory in the left side of the window and locating it in the list box on the right side. 

Dropping a user-interface widget, such as a master-slave pair of list boxes, onto a canvas and connecting the lists to the appropriate data sources from the problem domain. 

Report A list box is shown which includes the peak number, the data point... 

Instead of a reference, you can type a numeric value or a formula in the Refers To box. You can use named formulas to simplify long worksheet formulas by assigning names to parts of the formula. See "Returning an Array of Unique Entries in a List" in Chapter 4 or "A Drop-down List Box on a Worksheet" in Chapter 8 for examples of this technique. 

Use Apply Names (Figure 3-10) if you have created a spreadsheet with formulas using cell references and now want to replace the cell references with names. First, use Define Name or Create Names to assign names to the references. Then choose Apply Names. The names that you have assigned will be shown in the list box. The Ignore Relative/Absolute box should usually be checked. Select a name from the list and press OK. All cells containing the reference will be replaced by the name. 

Excel Tip. You can select more than one name at a time from the list box. In Excel for Windows, press the CONTROL key and then click on the names you want to select. In Excel for the Macintosh, press the COMMAND key and click on the names you want to select. 

A sheet-level name appears in the Define Name dialog box only when that sheet is the active sheet, with the sheetname shown on the right side of the list box, as in Figure 3-12. The name appears in the drop-down Name list box (in the formula bar) for that sheet, but does not appear when the drop-down list is selected in other sheets. 

For an example of using OFFSET, see "A Drop-down List Box on a Worksheet" in Chapter 8. 

To choose the field to sort by (sometimes called a sortkey), choose the field name from the Sort By list box (Figure 6-2) or type a reference in the input box for example, to sort by atomic symbol, you can either choose symbol (field names are not case-sensitive) or enter B 3 in the Sort By input box. Then press OK. Figure 6-3 shows a portion of the list, sorted in ascending order according to column 1. If the list is not sorted as you want it, press the Undo button or choose Undo Sort from the Edit menu. 

You can create what Microsoft calls a "custom form". A custom form is a worksheet with one or more of the controls that are normally found in a dialog box — for example, option buttons to turn options on or off, or a list box to display a list from which the user can select an item. Thus you can create a user-friendly document that has many of the features usually found only in dialog boxes. 

You Can Add Option buttons. Check boxes, list BOXES AND Other Controls to a Worksheet... 

The controls that can be installed on a worksheet to return a value to a worksheet cell are an option button, a check box, a list box, a drop-down list box (sometimes called a combo box), a scroll bar and a spinner. In addition, you can install a group box, which does not return a value but is used to group related controls, usually option buttons. 

A list box displays a list of items. Several of the items in the list are visible in the box the user scrolls up or down to display the rest of the list, then chooses an item. 

Adding a control to a worksheet is a three-step process first, you display the Forms toolbar (Figure 8-1) then you use the Forms toolbar to draw the desired control finally, you set the control properties. For example, for a list box, the control properties are (i) the range of values to be displayed in the list and (ii) the cell link, the cell to which the list box returns a value. Follow the procedure in the following box. 

Each control has a title, e.g.. Check Box 1, associated with it. The titles are numbered sequentially as you add them for example, if you add a list box, then three option buttons, then a check box, they will have titles Option Button 2, Option Button 3, Option Button 4, Check Box 5 (the list box doesn t have a title that you can see). You can select the title text and change it. 

List Box Input Range a reference to a range of cells whose values will be... 

Selection Type you must use Single when a list box is installed on a worksheet. 

As a simple first exercise, well create a list box that displays a list of items. The list that will be displayed consists of the names of the months of the year. When you select a particular month from the list, the list box returns a number from 1 to 12, the relative position of the selected item in the list. 

First, create a range of cells containing the list to be displayed. Fill the range A1 A12 (use a different worksheet than the one where you re going to install the list box) with the text January, February, etc. You can use AutoFill to do this. 

To install the list box on a worksheet, follow the procedure outlined earlier in this chapter. First, display the Forms toolbar. Click on the List Box button (second from the right in the top row in Figure 8-1) and use the mousepointer to draw the outline of a list box. While the list box is still selected (has handles around it), choose Control... from the Format menu. In the Input Range box, enter the external reference to the range of cells containing the list to be displayed. In the Cell Link box, enter a cell reference, e.g., C5, then press OK. 

To make the list box active, click on any cell in the worksheet. The handles around the list box will disappear. 

Figure 8-2. A list box installed on a worksheet. The cell link is cell C5.

The list box should now display the months of the year, as shown in Figure 8-2. When you select an item from the list, the Cell Link will return the number of the selected item. You can use the cell link value in a formula. 

To select the list box for moving or re-sizing, click on it once while holding down the CONTROL key. 

Figure 8-3 shows a drop-down list box that is used to display a subset of a list. This drop-down list box displays, from a list of names and telephone... 

The advantage of using the drop-down list box rather than a simple list box is that the box automatically sizes to fit the number of values displayed. 

Figure 8-3 shows the list box displaying the sublist of names beginning with the letter D. To select the subset to be displayed, the user enters a letter or string in cell F2. 

Figure 8-3. A drop-down list box displaying a subset of a list. The cell link is cell 12.

Finally, using Control... from the Format menu, DropList was entered as the reference for the Input Range of the list box and cell 12 as the Cell Link. 

The formula to return the telephone number corresponding to the name selected from the list box... 

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