Computers, the internet and the large number of programs that are available to all people have been of great help when it comes to doing work. The programs that are part of Microsoft Office are proof of this.
Excel one of the favorites
In addition to Microsoft Word, Excel is one of the most used programs around the world, its interface provides users with a wide range of options and tools that allow you to do really incredible things even working with spreadsheets with the Playmobile application Store.
Without a doubt, one of the most interesting and useful programs in the Office suite. Having basic knowledge about this program is considered a requirement for job vacancies related to business administration.
Much more than a spreadsheet
Its interface hides a large number of tricks and formulas for your spreadsheet that many may know, but few manage to handle it well enough to make them part of their day to day. In this opportunity, you will learn a little about the use of form controls.
What are they and what are they for?
These tools are objects, which you can place in one of the sheets of your Excel workbook or also through macros in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) helping to have more control over the content that you put into your file. Through this option, users will be able to select items from a predefined list or start macros much more easily.
How to use them?
In order to use the form controls, you must have the Developer tab enabled within your Excel. If you don’t have it, you can activate it in the following way:
- Right-click on the ribbon.
- Go to Customize Ribbon.
- Check the Developer box and press accept.
- Enter the Developer tab, placing the Insert option in the central part of the toolbar. In this way, different options offered by the form controls will appear on your screen, selecting the one that best suits your idea.
The use of controls in order forms
If you want to have more control over the sales of your products, taking into account the database of your customers, the most used object in the form control is the combo box.
- Once you have drawn the combo box in the area that you have destined within your order sheet, you must configure the properties of the object.
- Right-click on the box and select control format.
- A box will appear in which you will have to choose the input range, in this case, it would have to be the sheet where the databases or names of your clients are.
- Select all the cells that contain the information you want to take into account for the input range.
- For the second box, cell linking, you can select any cell that is outside your order sheet.
- Click accept.
That way, you can go to the combo box and a menu will be displayed with all the names of your customers or products that you have selected from the database.
Complement your order form
In order not to leave the address or telephone areas blank and thus complement the data of your customers, there is another trick that you can use to make your spreadsheet as customizable as possible. To do this, you will need the following formula:
= INDEX (array, row_num, [column_num])
- For example, for the application of this formula, once you have written « = INDEX ( «, the matrix will be all the cells in which you have the entire database of your customers.
- For the row number, select the part that you chose for cell linking in the above process.
- Finally, for the column number, write the number in which the addresses of your customers are located.
Repeat the process for the phones and any other section that you include in the order form. In this way, you will be able to establish complete control over all the sales that you have made during the day, the week or the month using these extraordinary tools that Microsoft Excel offers, such as blocking, protecting and unprotecting the sheets of a spreadsheet Excel.