Quickly create searchable or autocomplete drop down list in Excel

Kutools for Excel

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A drop down list can help to fill in a cell quickly without manually typing, but, if there are a long list of items, you need to scroll up and down in the list to search the proper item. In this case, using a searchable or autocomplete drop down list will be a good choice for you, so that when you type the corresponding characters, only the matching items are displayed in the drop down list as below demo shown.

With the Kutools for Excel’s Searchable Drop-down List feature, you can create a list of searchable drop down list quickly and easily in Excel.

Create searchable or autocomplete drop down list in Excel

To quickly create searchable or autocomplete drop down list, please do with the following steps:

1. First, you should create the drop down list in your workbook as below screenshot shown.

Tips: To create the drop down list, you can apply the Data Validation feature in Excel or Create simple drop-down list of Kutools for Excel.

2. And then, click Kutools > Drop-down List > Searchable Drop-down List, see screenshot:

3. In the Searchable Drop-down List dialog box, specify the scope where you want to apply this feature from the Set scope drop down list. You can select specified range, current worksheet, current workbook or specific sheet you need.

4. Then,click OK. Now, click a drop down list cell, a list box with all selections is displayed, you just need to type a specific character into the textbox, and all corresponding items will be shown at once, and then, you can click the needed item to insert it into the cell, see screenshots:

Tips:

1. You can also use the following shortcuts for doing some operations quickly and easily:

Up⬆ and Down⬇ key: use the Up⬆ and Down⬇ arrow in the keyboard directly to select the needed item;
ESC key: the current operation will not be saved and this Searchable Drop-down list box wil be hidden;
Enter key: the current operation will be saved and the cursor will move one cell down;
Tab key: the current operation will be saved and the cursor will move one cell to the right;

2. In the popped out list box: Click this button will close the searchable list box.

Notes:

1. To disable this feature, please click Kutools > Drop-down List > Clear Advanced Drop-down List, in the Clear Advanced Drop-down List dialog box, specify the scope where you want to clear, and then check Searchable Drop-down List, see screenshots:

2. This feature supports to keep the activation status and applying scope you have specified in the last closed workbook.

3. This feature only works if you have installed Kutools for Excel.

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