I often find myself in a situation where I need to clear a drop-down list from an Excel spreadsheet. Be it for a clean-up or making room for different data types, the process should be swift and hassle-free. Whether it’s about ditching just the list to keep the current value or erasing everything—value included—or taking it up a notch to delete the entire cell, I’ve got a couple of tricks up my sleeve to tackle each scenario smoothly.

For those times when speed is of the essence, I reach for that handy keyboard shortcut Alt ⇢ H ⇢ E ⇢ A, which whisks away the drop-down list in no time. But there’s more than one way to skin a cat, or in this case, to remove a drop-down list. Depending on the end-goal—retaining the cell’s content or starting from scratch—the next steps might vary.

Steps to Remove a Drop-Down List

When I need to remove drop-down lists from cells in Excel, here’s my to-go method:

  1. Select Cell(s): I click the cell or drag over the range containing the drop-downs.

    select-cell-or-range-of-cells

  2. Data Validation Access: Next, I navigate to the Data tab, click Data Tools, and choose Data Validation. The shortcut Alt → A → V → V also gets me there quick.

    data-validation-option

  3. Clear Validation Rules: In the Data Validation dialog box, I hit the Clear All button to erase the validation criteria from the selected cells.

    data-validation-dialog-box

  4. Finalize: I finish by clicking OK to close the dialog box. This way, the cells are cleared of drop-down lists but their content stays intact.

    close-the-data-validation-dialog-box

Get Rid of Drop Down List with Clear All Option

When I need to remove a drop-down list from a single cell in Excel, here’s what I do:

  1. Click on the cell that contains the drop-down list I want to get rid of.

    Select cell that contains drop-down list

  2. Navigate to the Home Tab, find the Editing group, and click on Clear All.

    Choose Clear All option

  3. By clicking Clear All, everything in the cell disappears, including the drop-down list.

    Cell after clearing all contents

For multiple cells, holding Ctrl while clicking lets me select them all. If I want to remove drop-down lists in a range, I use the Ctrl+G or F5 key to open the Go To dialog box, then click “Go To Special” for more options. Also, the keyboard shortcut Alt + H + E + A is super handy for clearing content quickly.

Delete Cell Entirely to Remove the Drop Down List

When I need to get rid of a specific drop-down list, here’s a quick method I use:

  1. Right-click on the cell with the drop-down.
  2. Click on “Delete“ from the menu.
  3. In the prompt, choose to delete the entire table cell.

After doing this, the cell and the drop-down are removed without any error alerts. If you want to maintain cell positioning and only remove content, use the other methods discussed.

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