How to Create a Yes – No Drop Down in Excel

Last Updated: June 22, 2023
puneet-gogia-excel-champs

- Written by Puneet

In Excel, you can create a simple drop-down with Yes and No values to use in the status column. In the following example, we have a list of students and now you need to create a drop-down with which we can enter yes or no in the “Passed” column.

sample-data-in-cells

Steps to Create a Drop-Down List with Yes & No

  1. First, select the cells or range of cells where you want to create this drop-down.
    create-a-drop-down
  2. Now, go to the Data Tab ⇢ Data Tools ⇢ Data Validation ⇢ Data Validation.
    data-validation-option
  3. From here, in the Data Validation Dialog box, select the “List” option from the “Allow” drop-down.
    select-list-option
  4. Next, enter (Yes, No) in the source input bar.
    enter-yes-no-in-source-input-bar
  5. In the end, click OK to create this drop-down with the list value Yes and No.

Now the moment you click OK, you will get a drop-down on all the cells that you have selected.

drop-down-list-created

While creating this drop-down with yes and no, you need to make sure that you have checked both of the following options from the dialog box.

tickmarked-ignore-blank-in-cell-dropdown
  1. Ignore Blank: With this option activated, you can leave a cell blank, but if not checked, it will show you an error if you left a cell without selecting any value (Yes-No).
  2. In-Cell dropdown: This need to be checked to have a drop-down so that you enter values with it, not by typing in the cell or copy-paste.

Create a Cell Message Along with the Yes-No Drop Down

When you create a dropdown list with the yes and no values, you might also like to add a message on the cell to aware of the user-specified value in the cell either “Yes” or “No”.

create-a-cell-message
  1. First, open the data validation dialog box, and go to the Input Message Tab.
    input-message-tab
  2. Now in the title bar, enter a title for the message.
    enter-title-for-message
  3. After that, enter the main message in the “Input message:”.
    enter-the-input-message
  4. In the end, click OK to save it.

When a user tries to add a value other than “Yes” or “No”, he/she will get an error like the below:

error-message-on-entering-other-value