Introduction: LibreOffice Calc: Drop-down Menu for Task Progression Values With Background Color According to Value

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This Instructable illustrates how to create a drop-down menu of values
with a cell background color depending on the cell value.

Supplies

  • LibreOffice is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Step 1: Creating the Values for the Drop-down Menu

Assuming that you created a new LibreOffice Calc file,
you can rename the current sheet by double-clicking on its name.

This step is only about creating the values to have inside the drop-down menu.

Step 2: Creating the Styles to Apply in Conditional Formatting

You can access the style management window ( "Manage Styles ") in the "Styles" menu,
or with F11.

Creating a parent-style for the different styles to apply
can be done by right-clicking on the "Default" style,
and by choosing "new".

In this illustration, the parent-style is named "task_progression_colors".

A style can be created, for each task progression value,
by choosing "new", after right-clicking on "task_progression_colors".

In order to have the cell containing "Finished" with a green background,
a green color is selected in the "Background" tab.

Step 3: Applying the Styles to the Column Containing the Task Progression Values

You can apply the styles to the column containing the task progression values by:

  • Selecting the column.
  • Choosing "Conditional", and "Manage", in the "Format" menu.

  • Relating a cell value to the corresponding formatting style.

Quotes are needed around the cell value.

Step 4: Limiting the Cell Values to the 4 Pre-defined Values

Data validation is needed to limit the cell values to the 4 pre-defined values.

Data validation can be accessed by :

  • selecting the area containing the cells where the data validation will be applied.
  • right-clicking on the area and selecting "Data Validation".

  • selecting the pre-defined values.