Subtitles of the Movie

Whenever I work with Microsoft Excel I'm always on the lookout for ways that I can ensure that data entry is correct. It's so easy to make typographical errors. Data Validation is one of the ways that I can protect my data on the spreadsheet. In all versions of Excel, Data Validation is found under the Data Menu; 2007 you'll see it right on the ribbon. Earlier versions of course you'll need to select it from the menu. When I select Data Validation, it will apply to whatever I have highlighted on the screen. If I have a column highlighted, it will be the entire column. I can do a row, I can do the entire worksheet or I can do just one individual cell. The choice is yours. Here's how it works. I'm going up to Data Validation and selecting it. The dialog box pops up which asks me for settings, an input message and an error alert. Errors are after the fact if you violate my rule. Input is to tell you what the rule is and settings is where I set the actual rule. Notice for the validation that any value is allowed. This is the default for all cells within Excel. I am going to the pull-down and I'm going to choose Whole Number. When I select Whole Number, I'm going to say I'd like that to be between one and ten. Now, if I'd like to give you a message on data input, I'll go to the Input Message. Here I'm going to type in enter a number between one and ten. And now I'll hit OK. Notice when I'm on the cell you have a little flag saying enter a number between one and ten. If I move off to another area of the spreadsheet, I do not see that flag. Again, back on the cell and the flag appears. If I enter one, everything is fine because I've met the criteria. I'm going to enter 11 this time. Once again, tab and notice that I get an error message. I must retry and set my number to be an accepted value. Let's go back to Data Validation again. This time I'm going to remove the message from the input message and instead put it in the error alert. Now this time you will not have a message flagged on the screen. When I go in, everything is fine. If I type in a number that's acceptable, nothing happens. Once again, though, if I type in a value that is not within the range, I get an error message. The different; the error message is what I typed in this particular time. When setting up the Data Validation, we get a great amount of control; an error message, an input message and you can do both. Settings allow me now to define the type of data that I have and you'll notice I can use decimals, dates, times. I can even control the amount of text that you enter into a cell or customize anything that I want to. Using this Data Validation really ensures that all your information is correct on the screen.