now that i have someone willing to help, let me give you a little more info. i elvaluate maintenance programs for aviation and the current course of action is to type the fault found again and again on an un-user friendly word doc. i believe i could create the same faults (sentences) and select them from a drop down and save time. i can do that with data validation, however i cannot do that and type text of my choice in the same cell. i think it important to note the xls will be different from one program inspection to the other, and that it will be one that has rows added and removed depending on the inspection results. the xls format will stay the same, but the amount of faults subject will change. it is possible the path i am on is not the right answer. is there an alternative to this? a list from another sheet? thanks.