Font Size in Control Box

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Good morning!

I have a control box with a drop-down list. And it works just fine. However, the font size is smaller than the rest of the worksheet.

How do I increase the font size in my control box? Seems like it should be easy but I haven’t figured it out

Thanks!

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What exactly is your control box – do you mean a combo box from the Forms toolbar, or a combo box from the Control Toolbox toolbar, or something else?

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What exactly is your control box – do you mean a combo box from the Forms toolbar, or a combo box from the Control Toolbox toolbar, or something else?

I made the combo box using the Forms toolbar. I’m new to this so not sure what the Control Toolbox toolbar is – is that what I need to use?

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In Excel 97-2003 there are two toolbars that let you create controls such as command buttons, check boxes and combo boxes (dropdown lists) on a worksheet. The controls from the two toolbars have slightly different characteristics.

You can’t specify the font size for the combo box from the Forms toolbar, the only way to increase the font size is to increase the zoom percentage for the worksheet.

You *can* set the font size for the combo box from the Control Toolbox toolbar:
– Activate the Control Toolbox toolbar.
– Click on the combo box button.
– Click on the worksheet.
– This will automatically activate design mode.
– With the new combo box still selected, click the Properties button on the Control Toolbox (the second button).
– Click in the Font property, then click the … button on the right hand side.
– Specify the font characteristics you want, then click OK.
– You can also specify the ListFillRange, i.e. the range of cells used to populate the dropdown list.
– And also the LinkedCell, i.e. the cell that will contain the item selected by the user.
– When you are done, turn off design mode by clicking the first button on the Control Toolbox.
– If you want to set properties of the combo box later on, turn on design mode again.
– Don’t forget to turn off design mode when you don’t need it.
– As long as design mode is on, you can’t use the combo box.

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If I make a combo box using the Control Toolbox then I can get the properties and that does include FONT. But it does not include font SIZE which is what I was looking for (unless it was called something very different). Did I miss it?

However, I made my combo box using the Form Control and font isn’t even listed in properties.

Which way is better to make combo boxes – Control Toolbox or Form Control?

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For your purpose, the combo box from the Control Toolbox is better, since you can set the font AND the font size: you have to click the button with the three dots … in the Font property to get the Font dialog – the screenshot below shows the Dutch language version but you should get the idea.

An important difference between the two combo boxes is what the linked cell displays.
For a combo box from the Forms toolbar, the linked cell shows the index of the selected item: 1 if the user selected the first item, 2 if the user selected the second item etc.
For a combo box from the Control Toolbox, the linked cell shows the text of the selected item.

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Thank you so much, Hans. You are always such a huge help and I appreciate it.

I’ll re-do my combo boxes and get them “right.”
—————
Hans, I re-did my combo boxes and now they are right – thanks to you. Those property boxes are very much like those in Access, aren’t they?

Thanks again!

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You can’t specify the font size for the combo box from the Forms toolbar, the only way to increase the font size is to increase the zoom percentage for the worksheet.

Actualy, in Excel 2004, one can control the font and its size of a Forms Listbox or combo box by modifying the Normal Style.
Too bad the height of a list item doesn’t adjust accordingly. (make the size to large and you’ll only see the bottom half of the letters in the listbox.)

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