This Tutorial Covers: • • • • • • • • Why Do You Need to Know About Data Entry Forms? Maybe you don’t! But if data entry is a part of your daily work, I recommend you check out this feature and see how it can help you save time (and make you more efficient). There are two common issues that I have faced (and seen people face) when it comes to data entry in Excel: • It’s time-consuming. You need to enter the data in one cell, then go to the next cell and enter the data for it.

Sometimes, you need to scroll up and see which column it is and what data needs to be entered. Or scroll to the right and then come back to the beginning in case there are many columns. • It’s error-prone. If you have a huge data set which needs 40 entries, there is a possibility you may end up entering something that was not intended for that cell.

A data entry form can help by making the process faster and less error-prone. Before I show you how to create a data entry form in Excel, let me quickly show you what it does. What's the best mac for high end recording studio. Below is a data set that is typically maintained by the hiring team in an organization. Every time a user has to add a new record, he/she will have to select the cell in the next empty row and then go cell by cell to make the entry for each column. While this is a perfectly fine way of doing it, a more efficient way would be to use a Data Entry Form in Excel. Below is a data entry form that you can use to make entries to this data set. The highlighted fields are where you would enter the data.

Once done, hit the Enter key to make the data a part of the table and move on to the next entry. Below is a demo of how it works: As you can see, this is easier than regular data entry as it has everything in a single dialog box. Data Entry Form in Excel Using a data entry form in Excel needs a little pre-work. You would notice that there is no option to use a data entry form in Excel (not in any tab in the ribbon). To use it, you will have to first add it to the Quick Access Toolbar (or the ribbon).

Adding Data Entry Form Option To Quick Access Toolbar Below are the steps to add the data entry form option to the Quick Access Toolbar: • Right-click on any of the existing icons in the Quick Access Toolbar. • Click on ‘Customize Quick Access Toolbar’. • In the ‘Excel Options’ dialog box that opens, select the ‘All Commands’ option from the drop-down. • Scroll down the list of commands and select ‘Form’. • Click on the ‘Add’ button. The above steps would add the Form icon to the Quick Access Toolbar (as shown below).

A UserForm guides data entry, so the first thing you need is a data range. Figure A shows the simple data set we'll work with. The workbook must be macro-enabled if you're using version 2007 or later. You can keep a lot of information on an Excel data entry form, but you can make it easier for your users -- and yourself -- to create tables by adding check boxes.

Once you have it in QAT, you can click any cell in your dataset (in which you want to make the entry) and click on the Form icon. Note: For Data Entry Form to work, your data should be in an. If it isn’t already, you’ll have to convert it into an Excel Table (keyboard shortcut – Control + T). Parts of the Data Entry Form A Data Entry Form in Excel has many different buttons (as you can see below). Here is a brief description of what each button is about: • New: This will clear any existing data in the form and allows you to create a new record.

• Delete: This will allow you to delete an existing record. For example, if I hit the Delete key in the above example, it will delete the record for Mike Banes. • Restore: If you’re editing an existing entry, you can restore the previous data in the form (if you haven’t clicked New or hit Enter). • Find Prev: This will find the previous entry.

• Find Next: This will find the next entry. • Criteria: This allows you to find specific records.

For example, if I am looking for all the records, where the candidate was Hired, I need to click the Criteria button, enter ‘Hired’ in the Status field and then use the find buttons. Example of this is covered later in this tutorial. • Close: This will close the form. • Scroll Bar: You can use the to go through the records. Now let’s go through all the things you can do with a Data Entry form in Excel.