Create a Drop-Down List in Excel on a Mac

Step-by-step instructions

This guide shows how to add a drop-down list to cells in Microsoft Excel on macOS using the Data Validation feature on the Data ribbon tab. You'll point the list at a range of cells so the selected cell shows a clickable in-cell drop-down.

1. In your worksheet, click the cell where you want the drop-down list (here cell F2) to select it.
2. On the ribbon, click the Data tab, then in the data tools group click the Data Validation button.
3. In the Data Validation dialog, on the Settings tab, click the Allow drop-down menu to open the list of validation criteria.
4. From the Allow drop-down, review the options (Any value, Whole number, Decimal, List, Date, Time, Text length, Custom).
5. Choose List from the Allow menu. Make sure Ignore blank and In-cell drop-down are checked, then click inside the Source field.
6. With the cursor in the Source field, click the first cell of the range that holds your list values (here cell C2, "Hoch").
7. Drag down to the last value to select the full source range (through cell C6, "Niedrig").
8. Click OK to confirm the Data Validation settings and create the drop-down list.
9. Click the cell with the new drop-down (F2) and open its arrow to see the list values (Hoch, Mittel, Niedrig); click a value such as "Hoch" to select it.
10. Open the drop-down again if needed and click another value, such as "Mittel" or "Niedrig", to change the cell's entry.
11. Once the drop-down list works, close the dialog or task pane to finish.