I find the controls from the Forms toolbar easier to work with. But the
controls from the control toolbox toolbar have a bunch of properties that you
can modify.
Right click on a combobox from the controltoolbox toolbar and select
properties. You'll see a bunch.
Right click on a dropdown from the Forms toolbar and you'll see Format control.
And an extra tab on that dialog that allows you to assign an input range and
linked cell.
(Those kinds of things appear in the properties of the combobox.)
You can assign the same macro (probably in a general module) to different items
(maybe similar types--like all dropdowns or all checkboxes).
With controls from the control toolbox, the code lives under the worksheet that
owns the object.
In particular, what's returned from a dropdown is an index into the list. The
value returned from combobox is, er, the actual value that appears in the
combobox.
And the controls from the control toolbox toolbar are the "new and improved"
version of controls. The Forms controls are supported for backward
compatibility (and to make my life easier). (In fact, the forms stuff is hidden
in the object brower. You actually have to ask to see them.)