Leading the way in Microsoft Office Development

Step 1 - Understand the Controls

These controls are still used by a lot of people as they do not require any VBA programming or definition and can be used and maintained from within Excel itself.

 Label - Allows you to display text to the user.

 Edit Box - This control was used with the old Excel 5.0 dialog boxes and was disabled in Excel 2000.

 Group Box - Allows you to group option buttons so they can all refer to the same linked cell.

 Button - Allows the user to perform a specific action and will run a separate subroutine.

 Check Box - Allows the user to either select or deselect an option.

 Option Button - This can be used to make a single choice from a selection of options.

 List Box - Allows the user to select from a list of possible choices.

 Combo Box - Allows the user to either select an item from a drop-down list of enter a different item.

 Combination List-Edit - This control was used with the old Excel 5.0 dialog boxes and was disabled in Excel 2000.

 Combination Drop-Down Edit - This control was used with the old Excel 5.0 dialog boxes and was disabled in Excel 2000.

 Scroll Bar - Allows the user to drag a button in order to select a value.

 Spinner - Allows the user to change a value by clicking either the increase or decrease button.

 Control Properties - This is only available when a Forms control is selected and displays the (Format > Control) dialog box.

 Edit Code - Allows you to edit and create VBA code associated with the selected control.

 Toggle Grid - Toggles displaying the gridlines on a worksheet.

 Run Dialog - This control was used with the old Excel 5.0 dialog boxes and was disabled in Excel 2000.

These are examples of the types of controls that can be added to a worksheet.

Step 2 - Things to Remember

You can use the Align and Distribute commands on the Drawing toolbar to help with the placement of these controls.

Press the left mouse button when you want to use the control and press the right mouse button when you want to edit the control.

It is possible to add these controls directly on a chart sheet as well as a worksheet.