Excel general stuff

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JohnRod

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I'm working with Microsoft Excel 2010.

I want to include the instructions for a cell within the same cell. How can I include instructional text in the cell that receives the input data? And be able to keep the instructions if the data is deleted from the cell? Is this possible?

In other words, how can I have the instruction "First name" in the same cell where you type "John". And if the input "John" is deleted, the instruction "First name" would appear in the cell again.

Thanks for the help!!!
 
It won't be putting the value in the cell, itself, but I think what you're looking for is an extension of data validation. Select the cell you would like to have instructions, and go to the Data tab and click on the top half of the Data Validation button. Go to the Input Message tab and check "Show input message when cell is selected." The title is optional, and will be bolded at the top of the message you input in the box provided. This message will show up whenever the cell is selected, similar to a comment window. Let me know if that works for you!
 
Yes, this will work, thank you for responding to my thread. I suppose that having the instruction directly in the cell while typing and deleting into the cell is not possible? But your suggestion works very well.

I'm a newbie at this excel stuff, and it's starting to grow on me.

Thanks again for the help.
 
Off the top of my head, I would say it would require VBA, which I'm not very well versed in. I think the Data Validation method is going to be the simplest way to accomplish what you need.
 
VBA ? Don't know what that is but I'm gonna look into it. Good time to expand my excel horizons.
 
VBA stands for Visual Basic for Applications. It uses a type of visual basic code meant to be used in conjunction with products like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. You can find a guide to it here, but it isn't something you typically learn overnight. Good luck if you're going for it!
 
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