Managing Records Using a Data Form

You can use a Data Form to display, edit, or delete selected records in a list. To display only selected records in the Data Form, you can specify the search criteria ”the information a record must contain ”in the Data Form, and Excel uses that criteria to find and display matching records. Although the Data Form shows only the records that match your criteria, the other records still exist in the list. If more than one record matches your criteria, you can use the Data Form buttons to move through the records, editing or deleting them.

Display Selected Records

Click anywhere within the list range.

Click the Data menu, and then click Form.

Click Criteria.

Type the information you want matching records to contain.

Click Find Prev or Find Next to advance to a matching record.

Repeat step 5 until Excel beeps or all records have been viewed .

Click Close.

Edit a Record

Click anywhere within the list range.

Click the Data menu, and then click Form.

Find a record that requires modification.

Click to position the insertion point in the field to edit, and then use Backspace and Delete to modify the text.

Click Close.

Delete a Record

Click anywhere within the list range.

Click the Data menu, and then click Form.

Click Criteria.

Type the information you want matching records to contain. You can fill in one or more fields.

Click Find Prev or Find Next to advance to a matching record.

Click Delete.

Click OK in the warning dialog box.

Click Close.

Did You Know?

You can return to the complete list of records . Click the Form button to return to the initial Data Form.

You can use wildcards to find data in a list quickly . The wildcard "?" stands for any single character, while "*" stands for many characters . R?N might find RAN or RUN while R*N might find RUN, RAN, RUIN, or RATION.

You can use the search option and not worry about case sensitivity . By default, the criteria on which Excel searches is not case-sensitive.