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Dynamic user interfaces

When I present spreadsheet results to clients, there are always several variables that I know the clients will want to play with ("What if this was higher, or if that was lower, or if I could see just those 3 items..."). This means I need to give the client choices and options, but I need to make them simple to use and have the model respond immediately.

 I've put together a collection of some techniques which you may find useful for this. Specifically, how to

  • make charts or lists dynamically adjust to the amount of data provided
  • allow users to choose how many items to show, how to sort them, even which items to show (from a list), all without any code
  • make multi-select listboxes work (this requires a little code, which I have written for you)

Please have a look at the workbook here (Dynamic User Selection.xls).

For the people who are wary of any workbook containing code, I will declare in advance that it contains two code modules, one containing the listbox code, and another to copy the listbox code to your own workbook, when you press a button in the workbook - this is for people with no VBA experience who would find it difficult to copy the code manually.  

Comments, suggestions and improvements are welcome.


Posted Jan 19 2008, 06:32 PM by dermot
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