Excel Data validation list font size

Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

• Watch the Tutorial
• Download the Excel File
• Widening Drop-down Lists
• Merge & Center Your Drop-down List
• Increasing the Font Size of a Drop-down List

Hello, I have created a dropdown list in my excel spreadsheet. The font of the dropdown list is unreadable. Please can you confirm how I would increase the font size? Increasing the font size of the cell does not work. The dropdown list (Monday - shown below) is generated using Data Validation and using Column1 (right hand side) to get the info.

Thanks,

Laura.

How to show all formulas in Excel?

Click here to reveal answer

Press Ctrl+` to show all formulas. Press it again to toggle back to numbers. The grave accent is often under the tilde on US keyboards.

Drop down list is a very helpful feature in Excel, when you create drop down list in your worksheet, have you ever tried to increase the font size of the drop down list to make the selected record larger and more readable as left screenshot shown? This article will talk about a workaround to solve it.

Increase drop down list font size with VBA code to enlarge the zoom

In fact, there is no direct way for us to increase the font size of the drop down list, but, you can apply the following VBA code to change the drop down list cells zoom setting to make the text appear larger. Please do as follows:

1. Go the worksheet which contains the drop down list that you want to increase its font size.

2. Right click the sheet tab, and select View Code from the context menu, in the popped out Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window, please copy and paste the following code into the blank Module window:

VBA code: Increase drop down list font size to enlarge the cell zoom

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range) 'updateby Extendoffice On Error GoTo LZoom Dim xZoom As Long xZoom = 100 If Target.Validation.Type = xlValidateList Then xZoom = 130 LZoom: ActiveWindow.Zoom = xZoom End Sub

3. Then save and close this code, now, when you click the drop down list cells, the cell’s zoom will be enlarged, and the drop down list will be appeared larger, but, when you click other cells not contain the drop down list, the cell zoom will be normal.

Note: In the above code, xZoom = 130 will change the drop down list cells zoom to be 130, you can change this zoom number to your need.

Create drop down list with checkboxes in Excel

If you need to create drop down list with multiple checkboxes in order to select multiple items from the list into one cell, maybe there is no direct way for you to solve this task. But, Kutools for Excel support an amazing feature - Drop-down List with Check Boxes, with this feature, you can quickly create drop-down list with checkboxes in a specified range, current worksheet, current workbook or all opened workbooks based on your needs.  Click to download Kutools for Excel!

Demo: Increase drop down list font size with VBA code to enlarge the zoom

No ratings yet. Be the first to rate!

I was wondering if its possible to Style a Drop Down List in Excel. The text is rather small and has no styling and I was wondering if the drop down list styling could be changed?

What would actually make sense is if the drop down list items copied the same styling as its source cells, i.e. alternating background colour of cells, font, size, etc. Or even the copying of the style of the validation cell itself!?

Is there any way to change this using VBA or any other 3rd party method?

Bottom Line: Learn how to change the drop-down box width and font size for data validation lists in cells.

Skill Level: Beginner

Watch the Tutorial

Download the Excel File

Widening Drop-down Lists

When working with drop-down lists, one common question I get is “How do I make it wider?” That's because oftentimes users are unable to read the longer selections in the drop-down menu. The length of the drop-down box is not big enough to display the entire text.

The simple solution is to widen the column that the drop-down box is in.

You can adjust the column manually by dragging the border of the column header. If you want to auto-fit the column, however, you should check your source list to see which entry is longest, then choose that entry in the drop-down, and then auto-fit by double-clicking the border of the column header.

Merge & Center Your Drop-down List

Sometimes simply widening the column is not a good solution because it may mess with the format of cells further down the worksheet. For example, in the form below, widening the column for the drop-down list changes the size of other form fields.

A workaround/alternative for this problem is to use the Merge & Center feature. I can select one or more of the cells adjacent to the drop-down cell and then select Merge & Center on the Home tab. In my example, I am merging B7, C7, and D7.

By merging the cells together, you've basically created one really long cell to fit the text of your longer drop-down entries.

You can change the alignment back to the left if the centering doesn't work well for your form.

Note: Even though you have merged and centered cells, you are still able to resize the columns as needed. The merged cell will adjust as you resize.

Some people strongly dislike using Merge & Center because it can cause issues in other areas. If you are one of those people, feel free to comment why specifically it gives you headaches. Perhaps we will make a post about the pros and cons of Merge & Center using your feedback.

Increasing the Font Size of a Drop-down List

Confession: the heading above is a little misleading because technically you cannot change the font of a drop-down list. However, we can make the menu bigger and easier to read using a workaround.

The solution for increasing the readability of drop-down text is to change the zoom level on the sheet.

To adjust the zoom level, you can:

• Use the slider in the bottom right-hand corner of the your worksheet.

• Hold Ctrl and scroll your mouse wheel.

• Click the Zoom button on the View tab. (Or the 100% button to bring it to 100% zoom.)

Conclusion

I hope these tips have been helpful. Here are a few related posts that you might be interested in reading:

How to Create Drop-down Lists in Cells (Data Validation Lists)

Drop-down List Arrow Always Visible for Data Validation

How to Create Dependent Cascading Drop-down Lists

In addition, I've got a really handy tool called the List Search Add-In that helps you search the contents of any drop-down list. This is especially helpful when your drop-down list is quite extensive. Click here to download the List Search Add-in.

If you have any questions or feedback about increasing the width or font of the drop-down menus you create, be sure to leave a comment!