Conditional drop-down box

Hi there,

Interesting thing about data validation is you can either have it applied or not.  You can't toggle it on or off natively.  You can do so with VBA and use a change event to look for you typing/selecting 'Other' in a specified range.

Before I do any coding, is that of interest to you?  There are pro's and con's to it.  It adds overhead.  Not much, and probably not noticeable, but some.  It clears the undo stack, which basically means on that sheet, when you change a cell, you will lose the ability to use undo from that point back.

If it is of interest to you, we would need to know the sheet name and range of the cells from your data validation selection (Fruit, Other, etc), and what cells should be affected.  For example the cells is always one cell to the right of the validation cell.  Also, have you thought about using tables?  This would allow us to code more specifically and have it be fairly dynamic.  I'm assuming you're using Excel 2010 from your tags.

Regards,
Zack Barresse

The Validation menu item has three tabs. You have been working with the first tab, which lets you choose List in the Allow field, then specify a Source.

The third tab (Error Alert) of the Validation menu item lets you specify the type of message displayed when the user does something not permitted. If you uncheck the box for "Show error alert after invalid data is entered" then the user can type in anything they like in addition to picking one of the canned choices.

Thanks byundt. But i'd like to keep the conditional drop-down box being drop-down only, and able to typing things in only when the "other" be selected.
Hi firefytr. Yes, I'd like to try the macro.
The data validation selection and the data source ware from two different worksheets. And i am not considering using a table as the amount of data source.
The "BODY LOCATION" is the first drop down box, in column R (8-1972) of sheet "Dropdown" (Pic1). Its validation source is from sheet"NewLup" column L (3-29) (Pic2).
The "Body Location Detail" in column S (8-1972) of sheet "Dropdown" (Pic1), is the second drop-down box, also the conditional drop-down box. Its validation source is from sheet"NewLup" column J&K (3-114) (Pic2)
I want to type things into the second drop-down box (column S), ONLY when the following 3 items were selected in the first drop-down box (column R),
"Hand, Finger and Thumb - Unspecified",
"Other Specified Multiple Location",  
"Unspecified"