You must have found this video because you were trying to add a checkbox or a drop down
list to Google Sheets.
Let's step through how we got to this point which is, we have three cells, all of them
have the same drop downs, and they are all a selection of three different directions.
First, you start by highlighting the area that you want to put the check boxes into.
Since these are already done, let's go right below, uhh let's go to the right, right here.
Then go to Data -> Data Validation.
Which may have been your first problem because there is no place that says "Drop Down Box."
In the data validation, this is your cell range, that's what we just highlighted so
you don't have to type anything into there if you highlighted it already.
The criteria is just the values that you want to see in the drop down box.
Now, if there is a lot of them, this wants you to put them into the spreadsheet and then
select them as a range, but we're just going to type them right into here.
It's a little bit easier that way.
So we'll just say, "Hey, we're going to give you a list of items" and then type in what
we're going to do.
If you notice, I am just typing them right in.
There are no quotes and there are no spaces but there is a comma between each one.
The magic here, it's already checked for you, but you want to show them in a drop down.
There are other things that this data validation can do, but we're just using it for a drop
down.
Once you've done that, leave all the other things here the way they are.
They're not really that relevant if your just doing a drop down box.
We're going to save it and go back to these cells.
To activate the check box, you have to hover over the down arrow and then left-click on
it and here are your different values.
I'd like to think of it like you have four values here.
You have East, West, South and then you also have just leaving it blank.
So, let's select East.
But if you really want to have a blank there that is a bit more intuitive, go back to data
validation.
Your values are still going to be in here.
If you do that and the user comes in here, the user can just do select one first if they're
not sure.
You would think that would be first but, oh, there it goes.
Now it's sorted right.
So, they can do one of the three or leaving it blank.
That's basically all that you do for a drop down list.
The user can go in here and select from these different values then they're done.
The next option that we're going to go through is a check box.
This is what we're going to build now.
You had employees and you are telling us which region they are from and you'd like to be
able to just put a check next to the one that's right.
This one, we'll do a backspace in.
If you want to build this, it a little bit different and it is a bit of a workaround.
You'll see that, yeah it works, but ehh, it's not the greatest, but it does work.
Select the area that you want this in.
We're just going to build what we have here right below.
And, again w'ere going to do data validation.
But here, you're going to build a list of items again but you're just going to put a
check mark in here.
I already have Google Docs up, and I have these symbols.
You get these symbols by doing Insert -> Special Characters.
Here you can choose from different symbols.
I have what you would see as a typical radio box.
A radio box is designed where, say there's three of them, you can only select one at
a time.
They're not going to work that way here, but you can have a symbol that looks like that
and you can either put it in there or not.
You can have an empty box with a check mark in it.
So let's do these.
This way you have two options.
You have one that empty, one that's not.
Copy them from Google Docs.
I just right clicked and copied, go back to Google Sheets, right click paste, and then
you do want a comma in between them because that's what tells Sheets that they're two
different values.
Now save this and you'll have check boxes.
So, I don't want that, I don't want that, but I do want this one.
So these definitely visually work.
You can tell that you selected this one and you said no to these.
They're not going to work really well when you want to sort things by what you said yes
to right?
Or if you want to run a report on it.
But, certainly if you just have an easy list, and you want someone to tell you which of
three different directions and you want a check box, this will work.
It will work just fine.
Those are your two basic ways to let a user easily pick something.
Do a drop down list or you can have this as a check box or you can have it as a radio
box.
I found that by doing radio, I don't think you want this one, and you just click it.
It will add it to your Google Doc.
I would imagine the circle's going to be the no, so click on the one that looks somewhat
similar in size.
Put it right next to it, that's not the right color.
Let's try these.
Ehh.
Insert -> Special Characters -> Circle.
I just used the one that says 2B55.
Close this.
You want to select that circle, let's get the data validation menu back up, you want
the circle and you want the circle with a circle which is like a selected radio box.
Those can be your two options.
Save and these will look like radio boxes.
On or off.
Now, keep in mind, if you see them on the web, the point is that you can only select
one, but here you can do as many as you want.
They don't really work like a radio box but you can make it look like it.
If you saw back there for a second, it was giving us an error because it still had the
check box in it and that is not a character that we allowed.
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