Automatically update pop-up menus in spreadsheet cells

> is it possible to have a cell reference another cell and be in the format of a drop down menu?

Numbers (at least, the current version 14.4) does not support dynamic pop-up menus like this.

Cells can have pop-up menus assigned, but only from a pre-populated list, and not from a dynamic list. In other words, you can't tell it to create a pop-up menu of options based on the values in a range on another table, and any changes to that range would not be reflected back in the pop-up menu.

Excel can use a range as the values for the popup menu, but Numbers can not.

Here is how I create and update pop ups that will be used in a column of a table. It sounds like a lot of work but it isn't all that bad. Hopefully my directions are clear enough.

Creating a pop up menu from a column of data:

1. In a table column, enter all items for the pop up menu (one per row obviously)
2. Select all of them. If a blank cell is included, the pop up menu will naturally become "start with blank".
3. Format as pop up menu. All of the cells will be pop up menus that include all the items in the order they appear in the table.
4. Select the one to be used as the main one (usually the blank one if there is one)
5. Copy
6. Paste it to the table that needs it.

How to edit all the pop ups:

1. In the table you used for creating the pop up, select the column of items  
2. Format as text or automatic or whatever format the items should be
3. Edit the items. Add new rows, delete rows, type in new items, fix typos, sort the column, whatever.
4. Select the column and format as pop up
5. Copy the pop up that matches the uppermost one in the other table where you are using them.
6. Paste the new pop up over the old one.
7. In this other table, select that cell and the rest of the column of pop ups.
8. In the cell tab of the format sidebar on the right, choose to merge menu items. All cells will get all the new items and they will be in the same sort order as the newly created pop up.

Yes — this is possible, and you don’t need to recreate or paste dropdowns each time.

The feature you want is dynamic, automatically updating pop-up menus in Numbers, using a single data source range for all dropdowns.

You can set this up so that:

• All dropdown cells point to one master list.
• When you add a new material (paver, timber, gravel, etc.) to your reference table,
• Every dropdown in the project sheet updates automatically — no copying, no pasting.

Hi Robert,

Ignore the AI-generated garbage from azaksalmarzur28.

Adding to the excellent (and correct) replies from Camelot and Badunit, there are ways to update Pop-Up Menus in Numbers, but those ways are not dynamic.

Also, you can drag menu items in this Data Format panel to rearrange the order of all selected Pop-Ups. For example, alphabetical:

Regards,

Ian.

Edit: that sorting will not change the chosen values in those cells.

The charm of Numbers!

Ian.

Numbers does not support dynamic pop-up menus, so it's unclear as to what it is you think you're proposing. Did you, by chance, ask ChatGPT?

You are not following azaksalmarzur28's instructions because they are total bull. I looked at a bunch of other posts from that username and all of them sound like AI responses. You are not the only one who could not follow "his" responses. So, either an AI bot or someone posting garbage that sounds intelligent but is wrong or totally useless or both.

Additional note on merging the pop ups in the last step:

No cell values are changed when merging the pop ups. If one of the cells has a value that is not in the new popup, it will become a new item at the bottom of all the merged pop ups. This is also true for items that were edited (typos fixed, for example). The fixed version will be in its correct place in the merged pop up and the unfixed version will move to the bottom of the list. If you are 100% sure no cell has one of those old items in it, select the column of popups and remove those old items from the list. If you remove an item that is still being used, those cells will go blank.