Data entry excel forms

Watch the Video on Using Data Entry Forms in Excel

Below is a detailed written tutorial about Excel Data Entry form in case you prefer reading over watching a video.

Excel has many useful features when it comes to data entry.

And one such feature is the Data Entry Form.

In this tutorial,  I will show you what are data entry forms and how to create and use them in Excel.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

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:

1. Right-click on any of the existing icons in the Quick Access Toolbar.
2. Click on ‘Customize Quick Access Toolbar’.
3. In the ‘Excel Options’ dialog box that opens, select the ‘All Commands’ option from the drop-down.
4.  Scroll down the list of commands and select ‘Form’.
5. Click on the ‘Add’ button.
6. Click OK.

The above steps would add the Form icon to the Quick Access Toolbar  (as shown below).

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 Excel Table. 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 scroll bar to go through the records.

Now let’s go through all the things you can do with a Data Entry form in Excel.

Note that you need to convert your data into an Excel Table and select any cell in the table to be able to open the Data Entry form dialog box.

If you haven’t selected a cell in the Excel Table, it will show a prompt as shown below:

Creating a New Entry

Below are the steps to create a new entry using the Data Entry Form in Excel:

1. Select any cell in the Excel Table.
2. Click on the Form icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.
3. Enter the data in the form fields.
4. Hit the Enter key (or click the New button) to enter the record in the table and get a blank form for next record.

Navigating Through Existing Records

One of the benefits of using Data Entry Form is that you can easily navigate and edit the records without ever leaving the dialog box.

This can be especially useful if you have a dataset with many columns. This can save you a lot of scrolling and the process of going back and forth.

Below are the steps to navigate and edit the records using a   data entry form:

1. Select any cell in the Excel Table.
2. Click on the Form icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.
3. To go to the next entry, click on the ‘Find Next’ button and to go to the previous entry, click the ‘Find Prev’ button.
4. To edit an entry, simply make the change and hit enter. In case you want to revert to the original entry (if you haven’t hit the enter key), click the ‘Restore’ button.

You can also use the scroll bar to navigate through entries one-by-one.

The above snapshot shows basic navigation where you are going through all the records one after the other.

But you can also quickly navigate through all the records based on criteria.

For example, if you want to go through all the entries where the status is ‘In-progress’, you can do that using the below steps:

Criteria is a very useful feature when you have a huge dataset, and you want to quickly go through those records that meet a given set of criteria.

Note that you can use multiple criteria fields to navigate through the data.

For example, if you want to go through all the ‘In-progress’ records after 07-08-2018, you can use ‘>07-08-2018’ in the criteria for ‘Date’ field and ‘In-progress’ as the value in the status field. Now when you navigate using Find Prev/Find Next buttons, it will only show records after 07-08-2018 where the status is In-progress.

You can also use wildcard characters in criteria.

For example, if you have been inconsistent in entering the data and have used variations of a word (such as In progress, in-progress, in progress, and inprogress), then you need to use wildcard characters to get these records.

Below are the steps to do this:

1. Select any cell in the Excel table.
2. Click on the Form icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.
3. Click the Criteria button.
4. In the Status field, enter *progress
5. Use the Find Prev/Find Next buttons to navigate through the entries where the status is In-Progress.

This works as an asterisk (*) is a wildcard character that can represent any number of characters in Excel. So if the status contains the ‘progress’, it will be picked up by Find Prev/Find Next buttons no matter what is before it).

Deleting a Record

You can delete records from the Data Entry form itself.

This can be useful when you want to find a specific type of records and delete these.

Below are the steps to delete a record using Data Entry Form:

1. Select any cell in the Excel table.
2. Click on the Form icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.
3. Navigate to the record you want to delete
4. Click the Delete button.

While you may feel that this all looks like a lot of work just to enter and navigate through records, it saves a lot of time if you’re working with lots of data and have to do data entry quite often.

Restricting Data Entry Based on Rules

You can use data validation in cells to make sure the data entered conforms to a few rules.

For example, if you want to make sure that the date column only accepts a date during data entry, you can create a data validation rule to only allow dates.

If a user enters a data that is not a date, it will not be allowed and the user will be shown an error.

Here is how to create these rules when doing data entry:

1. Select the cells (or even the entire column) where you want to create a data validation rule. In this example, I have selected column A.
2. Click the Data tab.
3. Click the Data Validation option.
4. In the ‘Data Validation’ dialog box, within the ‘Settings’ tab, select ‘Date’ from the ‘Allow’ drop down.
5. Specify the start and the end date. Entries within this date range would be valid and rest all would be denied.
6. Click OK.

Now, if you use the data entry form to enter data in the Date column, and if it isn’t a date, then it will not be allowed.

You will see a message as shown below:

Similarly, you can use data validation with data entry forms to make sure users don’t end up entering the wrong data. Some examples where you can use this is numbers, text length, dates, etc.

Here are a few important things to know about Excel Data Entry Form:

1. You can use wildcard characters while navigating through the records (through criteria option).
2. You need to have an Excel table to be able to use the Data Entry Form. Also, you need to have a cell selected in it to use the form. There is one exception to this though. If you have a named range with the name ‘Database’, then the Excel Form will also refer to this named range, even if you have an Excel table.
3. The field width in the Data Entry form is dependent on the column width of the data. If your column width is too narrow, the same would be reflected in the form.
4. You can also insert bullet points in the data entry form. To do this, use the keyboard shortcut ALT + 7 or ALT + 9 from your numeric keypad. Here is a video about bullet points.

You May Also Like the Following Excel Tutorials:

• 100+ Excel Interview Questions.
• Drop Down Lists in Excel.
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• Excel Text to Columns.

This is a straightforward way to use the data entry form feature in Excel. However, for larger datasets, the following ways will be more helpful.

To change the name of the “Label” simply double-click on it. This same system can be used for any of the remaining elements, including text boxes, lists, or commands. To save your work, you will need to save the Excel file as a macro-enabled workbook, i.e., in “.xlsm” format.

Data entry can sometimes be a big part of using Excel.

With near endless cells, it can be hard for the person inputting data to know where to put what data.

A data entry form can solve this problem and help guide the user to input the correct data in the correct place.

Excel has had VBA user forms for a long time, but they are complicated to set up and not very flexible to change.

In this blog post, we’re going to explore 5 easy ways to create a data entry form for Excel.

Video Tutorial

Excel Tables

We’ve had Excel tables since Excel 2007.

They’re perfect data containers and can be used as a simple data entry form.

Creating a table is easy.

1. Select the range of data including the column headings.
2. Go to the Insert tab in the ribbon.
3. Press the Table button in the Tables section.

We can also use a keyboard shortcut to create a table. The Ctrl + T keyboard shortcut will do the same thing.

Make sure the Create Table dialog box has the My table has headers option checked and press the OK button.

We now have our data inside an Excel table and we can use this to enter new data.

To add new data into our table we can start typing a new entry into the cells directly below the table and the table will absorb the new data.

We can use the Tab key instead of Enter while entering our data. This will cause the active cell cursor to move to the right instead of down so we can add the next value into our record.

When the active cell cursor is in the last cell of the table (lower right cell), pressing the Tab key will create a new empty row in the table ready for the next entry.

This is a perfect and simple data entry form.

Data Entry Form

Excel actually has a hidden data entry form and we can access it by adding the command to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Add the form command to the Quick Access Toolbar.

1. Right click anywhere on the quick quick access toolbar.
2. Select Customize Quick Access Toolbar from the menu options.

This will open up the Excel option menu on the Quick Access Toolbar tab.

1. Select Commands Not in the Ribbon.
2. Select Form from the list of available commands. Press F to jump to the commands starting with F.
3. Press the Add button to add the command into the quick access toolbar.
4. Press the OK button.

We can then open up data entry form for any set of data.

1. Select a cell inside the data which we want to create a data entry form with.
2. Click on the Form icon in the quick access toolbar area.

This will open up a customized data entry form based on the fields in our data.

Microsoft Forms

If we need a simple data entry form, why not use Microsoft Forms?

This form option will require our Excel workbook to be saved into SharePoint or OneDrive.

The form will be in a browser and not in Excel, but we can link the form to an Excel workbook so that all the data goes into our Excel table.

This is a great option if multiple people or people outside our organization need to input data into the Excel workbook.

We need to create a Form for Excel in either SharePoint or OneDrive. The process is the same for both SharePoint or OneDrive.

1. Go to a SharePoint document library or a OneDrive folder where the Excel workbook is going to be saved.
2. Click on New and then choose Forms for Excel.

This will prompt us to name the Excel workbook and open up a new browser tab where we can build our form by adding different types of questions.

We first need to create the Form and this will create the table in our Excel workbook where the data will get populated.

Then we can share the form with anyone we want to input data into Excel.

When a user enters data into the form and presses the submit button, that data will automatically show up into our Excel workbook.

Power Apps

Power Apps is a flexible drag and drop formula based app building platform from Microsoft.

We can certainly use it to create a data entry from for our Excel data.

In fact, if we have a table of data set up, Power Apps will create the app for us based on our data. It can’t be any easier than that.

Sign in to the powerapps.microsoft.com service ➜ go to the Create tab in the navigation pane ➜ select Excel Online.

We’ll then be prompted to sign in to our SharePoint or OneDrive account where our Excel file is saved to select the Excel workbook and table with our data.

This will generate us a fully functional three screen data entry app.

1. We can search and view all the records in our Excel table in a scroll-able gallery.
2. We can view an individual record in our data.
3. We can edit an existing record or add new records.

This is all connected to our Excel table, so any changes or additions from the app will show up in Excel.

Power Automate

Power Automate is a cloud based tool for automating task between apps.

But we can use the button trigger to make an automation that captures user input and adds the data into an Excel table.

We’ll need to have our Excel workbook saved in OneDrive or SharePoint and have a table already setup with the fields we want to populate.

To create our Power Automate data entry form.

1. Go to flow.microsoft.com and sign in.
2. Go to the Create tab.
3. Create an Instant flow.
4. Give the flow a name.
5. Choose the Manually trigger a flow option as the trigger.
6. Press the Create button.

This will open up the Power Automate builder and we can build our automation.

1. Click on the Manually trigger a flow block to expand the trigger’s options. This is where we’ll find the ability to add input fields.
2. Click on the Add an input button. This will give us options to add a few different types of input fields including Text, Yes/No, Files, Email, Number and Dates.
3. Rename the field to something descriptive. This will help the user know what type of data to input when they run this automation.
4. Click on the three ellipses to the right of each field to change the input options. We’ll be able to Add a drop-down list of option, Add a multi-select list of options, Make the field optional or Delete the field from this menu.
5. After we have added all our input fields, we can now add a New step to the automation.

Search for the Excel connector and add the Add a row into a table action. If you’re on an Office 365 business account, use the Excel Online (Business) connectors, otherwise use the Excel Online (OneDrive) connectors.

Now we can set up our Excel Add a row into a table step.

1. Navigate to the Excel file and table where we are going to be adding data.
2. After selecting the table, the fields in that table will appear listed and we can add the appropriate dynamic content from the Manually trigger a flow trigger step.

Now we can run our Flow from the Power Automate service.

1. Go to My flows in the left navigation pane.
2. Go to the My flows tab.
3. Find the flow in the list of available flows and click on the Run button.
4. A side pane will pop up with our inputs and we can enter our data.
5. Click Run flow.

We can also run this from our mobile device with the Power Automate apps.

1. Go to the Buttons section in the app.
2. Press on the flow to run.
3. Enter the data inputs in the form.
4. Press on the DONE button in the top right.

Whichever way we run the flow, a few seconds later the data will appear in our Excel table.

Conclusions

Whether we require a simple form or something more complex and customize-able, there is a solution for our data entry needs.

We can quickly create something inside our workbook or use an external solution that connects to and loads data into Excel.

We can even create forms that people outside our organization can use to populate our spreadsheets.

Let me know in the comments what is your favourite data entry form option.

Data Entry Forms is an extremely useful feature if inputting data is part of your daily work.

It can help you avoid the mistakes and make the data entry process faster. It also helps you focus on one record at a time!

It is a convenient and faster way to input records in Excel by displaying one row of information at a time without having to move from one column to another.

In this tutorial, we will show you How to Create Form in Excel for Data Entry.

Whenever I wanted to enter data in Excel, it would take me a very long time to input these records one by one, but I discovered a handy trick that can turn my Excel Table into a handy Excel Data Entry Form!

Say goodbye to inputting entering data into this Table row by row by row by row….

Below, we will cover the Top 11 Excel Data Entry Form Tips and Tricks that will be beneficial for you:

1. #1 – Create Form in Excel
2. #2 – Add to Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)
3. #3 – Access the Form anytime
4. #4 – Browse through Records
5. #5 – Edit Existing Record
6. #6 – Search Criteria
7. #7 – Restore a Record
8. #8 – Data Validation in Forms
9. #9 – Delete a Record
10. #10 – Close the Form
11. #11 – Keyboard Shortcuts for Data Entry Forms

Make sure to download the Excel Workbook below and follow along:

DOWNLOAD EXCEL WORKBOOK

Want to know how to use the Data Entry Form?

*** Watch our video and step by step guide below with free downloadable Excel workbook to practice ***

Watch it on YouTube and give it a thumbs-up!

Watch it on YouTube and give it a thumbs-up!

Watch it on YouTube and give it a thumbs-up!

1. Create Form in Excel

I will show you how easy it is to Create Form in Excel for Data Entry with the following quick video below (scroll further down to see the step by step instructions after you watch this awesome video).

*** Watch our video below on How to Create Form in Excel in 5 minutes!***

2. Add to Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)

Now that you have learned how to create form in Excel, lets put them on your QAT for easy access.

To add to the quick access toolbar, follow the steps below:

STEP 1: Click on the small arrow right next to QAT.

STEP 2: Click on More Commands from the dropdown list.

STEP 3: In the Excel Options dialog box, select All Commands from Choose commands from list.

STEP 4: Select Form from the list and then click on Add>>.

STEP 5: Form is now available in the Customize Quick Access Toolbar. Click OK.

Data Entry Form is now part of your Quick Access Toolbar.

3. Access the Form anytime

To access the Excel Data Entry Form, click on any cell in the table and click on the Form icon in Quick Access Toolbar.

If you try to access the form when you haven’t selected a cell within the data table, you will receive an error message like the one shown below:

4. Browse through Records

To navigate through the existing records, simply use the Find Previous and Find Next buttons available on the Data Entry Form.

You can also use the scroll bar to go through the records one after the other.

This will save time when you have a data with multiple columns and records.

5. Edit Existing Record

Use the Find Previous and Find Next buttons to search for the record to want to edit.

Once you find the desired record, simply make the necessary edit and hit Enter in Excel.

The data table will be updated with the changes made.

6. Search Criteria

Using Wildcards

If you wish to search all entries containing the word “east” in the Region Column, you can do that by using the wildcard asterisk (*).

STEP 1: In the Data Entry Form, click on the Criteria button

STEP 2: In the Region field, type *east (to search all-region containing the word east)

STEP 3: Click Find Next to find the entries containing the word east.

Excel Data Entry Form will find the three entries for you in this scenario!

Using greater or less than sign

If you want to search for persons having a salary greater than or equal to $75,000, you can do so by following the steps below:

STEP 1: In the Data Entry Form, click on the Criteria button

STEP 2: In the Salary field, type >=75000.

STEP 3: Click Find Next to find all entries with a salary greater than or equal to $75,000.

7. Restore a Record

Suppose you have accidentally deleted the first name of a record.

And you don’t remember what was written in that field! Don’t panic.

You can use the Restore button in the Excel Data Entry Form and retrieve the data lost accidentally.

The data will reappear in the respective field.

One thing you need to keep in mind is that the Restore button is only useful if you haven’t hit Enter.

The moment you press the Enter button, the Restore button will become inactive and you won’t be able to revert back to the original data.

8. Data Validation in Forms

Even though you cannot directly add any data validation to the form. Any restriction created on the data table will still be in effect in the Forms.

Let’s see how!

Say, you add a list rule to the Region Column using Data Validation.

STEP 1: Select the Region Column.

STEP 2: Go to Data Tab > Data Tools (Group) > Data Validation.

STEP 3: In the Data Validation dialog box, click on the Allow dropdown and select List.

STEP 4: In the Source field, type Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, and click OK.

Data Validation has now been inserted in the Region Column where you are only allowed to enter values present in the list (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest).

STEP 5: Click on the Forms icon in QAT.

STEP 6: Change the Region for Record 1 from Northeast to East and Click OK.

Once you click OK, you will see an error message as below:

9. Delete a Record

STEP 1: Use the Scroll Bar to navigate to find the entry you want to delete.

STEP 2: Simply, click on the Delete button.

STEP 3: A confirmation message will appear on your screen, Click OK.

The desired entry will be removed from the data table.

10. Close the Form

To close the dialog box for Data Forms, simply click on the Close button (X) on the top-right corner of the bix.

11. Keyboards Shortcuts for Data Entry Forms

You can use the following keyboard shortcuts to work faster when using Data Entry Forms:

• Press Tab to go to the next field in the Excel Forms.
• Press Enter to go to the next record in the Excel Forms.
• Hit the Esc button on your keyboard to close the Excel Form.

This completes our tutorial on the Top 11 things you should know if Data Entry is what you do in Excel. It will not only make the process faster but also a lot more easier and fun!

Few things to keep in mind when using the Excel Data Entry Form are:

• You can add a maximum of 32 fields per record.
• You cannot print a data form record.
• Before you hit Enter, you can restore any changes made to the data.

So, give it a try! I am sure you are gonna love it!!

You can know more about How to Create Form in Excel by going through this tutorial by Microsoft.

Home / Advanced Excel / How to Create a Data Entry Form in Excel

The data entry form is one of the best ways to enter data into a table. But, creating a form to enter data it not a cup of cake.

Yes, that’s right.

While struggling with this problem, I have found that you can create a form in Excel for data entry just with a single click. The best part about this form is it’s pre-designed and flexible. Just look at the below example.

Here’s the idea: To create this entry form, the only thing you need to do is to activate it.

In a short while, you will discover that how helpful this tool is. But, this is hard to believe that there is no listing of this data entry form in the ribbon. So, you have to make it appear before we use it. And before you activate this form, you need a table to enter data or at least headers of the data.

To activate it, click any of the cells in the table or just select one of the heading cells and use one of the below two methods.

1. Use the keyboard shortcut key: Alt ⇢ D ⇢ O ⇢ O.
2. Add an icon to the quick access toolbar.
   1. File ➜ Options ➜ Quick Access Toolbar.
   2. Choose Command From ➜ Commands Not In Ribbon ➜ From ➜ Add ➜ Click OK.

After using one of the above options, it will create a data entry form for you just like below.

And if you notice, all the headings of your data table are automatically captured in the form.

1. Create New Entry

To create a new data entry fill all the input boxes with data and click on the “New” button. Now if you look at the below example you’ll find that there is no input bar for the amount column.

We have a formula in the amount column to multiply the quantity by the price. That means this form is quite smart to discover the columns where there is no need to input data.

2. Navigate Entries

To navigate all the entries which you have entered in your data, you can use the scroll bar or you can use the “Find Prev” & “Find Next” buttons.

3. Edit Entries

To edit an entry you have to first navigate to that entry by the using method mentioned above. Once you navigate, you can make the changes in any of the input boxes and after that, just press enter key.

While editing your entry (before pressing enter or clicking the close button), if you want to restore your entry you can do it with the restore button. It will restore the previous data in all the input boxes.

4. Delete Entries

To delete an entry you have to navigate to that entry and click on the delete button. A pop window will appear for the confirmation of the deletion and it will instantly delete that entry from your data table.

5. Find a Specific Entry

If you are working on large data, you can use the “Criteria” button to find a specific entry.

For example, if you want to find entries below the table that match some specific criteria, just click on the Criteria button, enter the criteria in the input box, and press Enter. You will get the data entries matching your criteria. You can also use your criteria in more than one input box.

Important Points about this Data Entry Form

Well, there are some important points that you should know to play well with this form.

1. The maximum number of input boxes you can use in the data entry form is 32.
2. The width of the input box is purely connected with the related column in the worksheet. If your worksheet columns are not sufficiently wide to show values, the same width will reflect in your data form also.
3. On the other hand, if only one of the columns is over in width, the same width will reflect for all input boxes in data form.
4. If you have a range with the name “Database” then there is no need to select any cell from the table. It will always insert data into that table.
5. While using criteria to pull some specific data, you can use Excel Wildcard Characters in this form.
6. While creating data entries if you try to overwrite data in the cell, it will give you an alert message “Cannot extend list or database”.

.