Here is what I want to do in excel but I can't figure out how to do it.

I want to select an item, we will call it a paint color, from a drop down menu (this I know how to do) then have excel auto fill a series of cells with the formula so I can print it out. I want the cells to look this:
______________________________
Color Name Color Number
Product (entered by us)

Clorant Oz 48 1/96 1/192
BU 1 12 1
LB 4

Date
_______________________________

of course each color will have a different formula so the colorants and amounts will change.

Can this be done in excel?

if not, can you suggest another (cheap/free) program to look at

 

Everytime I need a table of somewhat associated data, I'd do it in Qbasic and output a CSV file, and import that to my spreadsheet app.

Id pout the individual datums in a cell.

If you want to equate a product name into a color formula, you need a database of the color name, and the formula.

 

what is Qbasic. I think that has to do with basic programing. is that right?

 

Yup. As in the language Basic with a capital 'B'.

 

I don't know Basic. That was why I was trying to do this in Excel. do you know of any database programs that might me relitivly easy to use?

 

Microsoft Access can do this.

Set up a table with all the colors with it's associated mixtures.

Set up a Form with drop down selections

Access can do it all, but it takes some time to learn it all.

 

I am very slowly figgering this out on Access. But have a few questions. Is it possible to set up a drop down in Excel that will pull the data from access or do I have to do a quarry?

In access I have the data I want but I am having issue with the formating of the report. I want to select a color name from a drop down box and have a series of cells auto fill with the data. How do I link those cells so that when I select one it auto fills others. Also I need the fill to be contingent on 2 variables; name/number and size.