# Adding a Dropdown Menu
**URL:** https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603
**Category:** Ask for Help
**Created:** [January 12, 2023, 8:15am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603 "2023-01-12T08:15:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Emmanuel\_Kesse](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Emmanuel_Kesse)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 8:15am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/1 "2023-01-12T08:15:43Z")
Hi guys so I have some data columns on my spreadsheet that are set up as dropdown on the spreadsheet but Glide was not able to create the dropdown when I first linked the Spreadsheet. How do I create a dropdown menu to match with those columns?
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 8:27am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/2 "2023-01-12T08:27:36Z")
To get a drop-down list in Glide, you need to use a Choice component.
A choice component needs a list of options as its source, which must be a single column with one option per row. So to set that up in your spreadsheet or Glide Table, you need something like the following:
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### Author:  [@Emmanuel\_Kesse](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Emmanuel_Kesse)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 9:16am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/3 "2023-01-12T09:16:42Z")
Hi Darren, thanks for your timely response. So I set up my sheet to use Google Sheet’s [Data Validation] option for the user to select options. Please see the attached image. Can I use this? If not cannot you explain a bit more about what you mean by Choice Component?
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 9:26am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/4 "2023-01-12T09:26:30Z")
No, you can’t use Google Sheet validation in Glide. Glide only syncs data with your Google Sheet, it knows nothing of your formatting or any data validation rules.
With Glide, you are much better treating your Google Sheet purely as a data source, and minimise (or even eliminate) any special formatting, formulas, etc. All of that is much better done in Glide.
Here is the Glide documentation on the Choice Component:
> **[Glide Docs • Choice Component](https://www.glideapps.com/docs/reference/components/choice-component)**
>
> Pick options from a list
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### Author:  [@Emmanuel\_Kesse](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Emmanuel_Kesse)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 11:20am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/5 "2023-01-12T11:20:58Z")
Thanks for your help.
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### Author:  [@auzzieb53](https://community.glideapps.com/u/auzzieb53)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2023, 8:38pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/6 "2023-06-20T20:38:43Z")
Hi Emmanuel, I’m trying to do the same thing, using a data validation/pick list component in the glide data table. I’m assuming this type of thing isn’t possible but wanted to see if you had any success here.
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### Author:  [@auzzieb53](https://community.glideapps.com/u/auzzieb53)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2023, 8:40pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/7 "2023-06-20T20:40:11Z")
The choice component works in a form, but I was trying to streamline the data entry before the information gets presented in the app.
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### Author:  [@Tamara\_Didenko](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Tamara_Didenko)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/8 "2023-06-20T20:47:57Z")
> [@Darren\_Murphy](#):
>
> No, you can’t use Google Sheet validation in Glide. Glide only syncs data with your Google Sheet, it knows nothing of your formatting or any data validation rules.
Would Glide load those as a text column instead? I’m thinking, to set validation rules in G Sheets, you need to have a similar setup in G Sheets as what you’re showing here:
> [@Darren\_Murphy](#):
>
> you need something like the following:
>
> 
So, presumably, those validation rules can be reused in Glide?
* * *
> [@auzzieb53](#):
>
> The choice component works in a form, but I was trying to streamline the data entry before the information gets presented in the app.
Can you explain more about what you’re trying to achieve?
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2023, 3:14am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/9 "2023-06-21T03:14:34Z")
> [@Tamara\_Didenko](#):
>
> Would Glide load those as a text column instead? I’m thinking, to set validation rules in G Sheets, you need to have a similar setup in G Sheets as what you’re showing here:
>
> > [@Darren\_Murphy](#):
> >
> > you need something like the following:
> >
> > 
>
> So, presumably, those validation rules can be reused in Glide?
hey Tamara… sorry, I don’t really follow your question. What I showed there was just a list of values, which would appear as the same list of values in the Glide Data Editor. There were no validation rules in the GSheet, and even if there were - Glide would ignore them.
> [@Tamara\_Didenko](#):
>
> > [@auzzieb53](#):
> >
> > The choice component works in a form, but I was trying to streamline the data entry before the information gets presented in the app.
>
> Can you explain more about what you’re trying to achieve?
Just guessing, but I read that as meaning they would be entering data via the Glide Data Editor, and were looking for additional functionality there - pick lists, etc. Probably an Airtable user 😉
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### Author:  [@auzzieb53](https://community.glideapps.com/u/auzzieb53)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2023, 3:53am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/10 "2023-06-21T03:53:23Z")
Lol, Airtable. FWIW I like Glide way better.
Basically, I’m creating a large archive of user personas (the end state will just be a page with some textual data, images, etc.)
Each persona has a list of products/software tools assigned to them that they tend to use, however we have ~100 of these products. Rather than typing them in, I was trying to create a list of products in a separate data table and select/check the names (versus typing them in each time).
I found this ‘lookup’ option which lists a set of values from a separate table, but doesn’t allow me to select them, it just populates the whole list.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2023, 3:55am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/11 "2023-06-21T03:55:30Z")
Yeah, the Data Editor doesn’t have the sort of functionality that you’re looking for. I just replied with a suggestion in your other thread.
> [@Checkbox/Select List in Data Table](https://community.glideapps.com/t/checkbox-select-list-in-data-table/62986/6):
>
> You might find it easier to prepare the list outside of Glide (ie. in a Google or Excel Sheet), and then use the CSV Import option to add it to Glide. That’s what I normally do when I want to add a bunch of data quickly. You can even copy/paste from an external source if it isn’t too much data.
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### Author:  [@auzzieb53](https://community.glideapps.com/u/auzzieb53)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2023, 4:18pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/adding-a-dropdown-menu/56603/12 "2023-06-21T16:18:50Z")
Hi Darren, thanks again for your suggestion. I ended up:
- Created a data table in Airtable
- Made a multi-select field and populated there
- Imported it to Glide
- You have to then convert that array of values to a joined list, then you can present it in the UI
I know it might seem like an unnecessary step, but at some point we are going to ask a larger team to manage this data and having them select from a controlled list of values is probably important.
I really appreciate your help and feedback!