Dropdown Wizard help
Setting up cascading dropdowns, keeping them up to date, and fixing them when they show the wrong options.
Getting started
What it actually does
It builds linked dropdowns. Pick a category in one column, and the next column only offers the options that belong to that category. Choose Wine, and you get Red, White and Sparkling. Choose Spirits, and you get Whisky and Vodka.
Doing this by hand means one named range per category and a pile of INDIRECT formulas. This does it from a plain two-column list in about a minute.
Adding it to Google Sheets
Open The Dropdown Wizard listing, click Install, and choose the Google account you use for Sheets. It is free, there is nothing to pay, and you are never asked for a card.
Where to find it once it is installed
Open any spreadsheet and go to Extensions › The Dropdown Wizard › Launch Dropdown Wizard. There is a second item on that menu, Refresh dropdowns, which matters later.
The permissions screen
The first time you open it, Google asks you to approve two things. That is the whole list.
See and edit this spreadsheet only
The narrow version of the permission. It works on the spreadsheet you have open and no other file in your Drive.
Display and run third-party web content
A scary name for a boring job. It draws the sidebar, which is the entire interface.
You can remove access at any time at your Google account permissions page.
“Google hasn’t verified this app”
This screen is normal, and it goes away by itself.
It appears while an add-on is going through Google’s verification review, and it appears for every add-on sitting in that queue.
To continue: click Advanced, then Go to The Dropdown Wizard (unsafe), then Allow. The word “unsafe” is Google’s standard wording for “we have not finished checking this one yet”. It is not a warning about anything we have done.
Your category list
Everything starts with a plain two-column list. Category on the left, option on the right, one pair per row. Repeat the category as many times as it has options. It can live on any tab, and a separate tab called something like Lists keeps it tidy.
| Category | Option |
|---|---|
| Wine | Red |
| Wine | White |
| Wine | Sparkling |
| Spirits | Whisky |
| Spirits | Vodka |
| Beer | Lager |
Include your header row in the selection.
The first row you select is always treated as the header and skipped. So select from the header down, not from your first real pair.
If you select without the header, your first category quietly goes missing. The sidebar tells you which row it treated as the header, so glance at that line before you carry on.
How big it can get
There is no hard limit, but the add-on warns you before applying if you are pointing at more than 2,000 rows, or if any single category has more than 500 options. Both still work. They are just slow, and the warning is there so a long wait is not a surprise.
The three steps
Your category list. Select both columns of your list, header row included, then click Use current selection in the sidebar.
The sidebar shows you a preview: how many categories it found, how many options, and which row it skipped as the header. Check those numbers match what you expect before moving on.
Where the dropdowns go. Go to the tab where people will be typing. Select the cells in your category column, click Set category column. Then select the cells in your option column and click Set option column.
These are two separate selections and two separate buttons. The two columns do not have to sit next to each other, but they do need the same number of rows.
Apply. The sidebar shows what is about to change, including a warning if those cells already carry data validation that the wizard did not put there. Nothing is written until you confirm.
Then test it. Click a cell in the category column, pick a category, and check the option cell beside it offers only that category’s options. That is the whole product working.
Keeping it up to date
Edit your list, then run Refresh. This is the one thing to remember.
The dropdowns are built from your list at the moment you press Apply. They are not live. If you add a category, add an option, or fix a spelling in your list afterwards, the dropdowns carry on offering the old choices until you tell them otherwise.
The fix takes two seconds: Extensions › The Dropdown Wizard › Refresh dropdowns. There is also a Refresh button in the sidebar. Either one rebuilds from your list as it stands right now.
You do not need to walk through the three steps again. The add-on remembers your setup in the spreadsheet itself, so anyone who opens that file can refresh it, not just the person who built it.
Your data
Only the sheet you have open
Not your Drive, not your other files. That is built into the permission it asks for, so it is not a promise, it is a limit.
Nothing is sent anywhere
The add-on makes no network requests at all. There is no server to send anything to, because everything happens inside your spreadsheet.
No account, no sign-up
We do not know who you are and we are not asking. There is nothing to log in to.
Your setup stays in your file
The record of which columns you chose is stored inside your own spreadsheet, not with us.
Full detail is in our privacy policy.
Common problems
The dropdown is showing the wrong options
Almost always because the list changed after the dropdowns were built. Run Extensions › The Dropdown Wizard › Refresh dropdowns. See Keeping it up to date above.
“Select two columns, category then option”
Your selection was not two columns wide. Drag across both columns of your list, not just one, and make sure the category column is the left of the two.
“That selection is only one row”
You need the header row plus at least one real pair beneath it. A single row gives the add-on a header and nothing else.
“No categories found below the header row”
Your selection probably started on your first category instead of your header. The first row is always skipped, so starting one row too low means your only category was thrown away. Select one row higher.
My first category vanished
Same cause as above. Include the header row, then check the line in the sidebar that tells you which row it skipped.
It says my sheet is missing
The tab holding your list, or the tab holding your dropdowns, has been renamed or deleted since you set it up. The message names the sheet it cannot find. Either rename it back, or run through the three steps again to point at the new one.
It warned me about existing validation
Those cells already had a dropdown or a validation rule on them from somewhere else. Applying will replace it. If you are not sure what was there, cancel, and check the cells with Data › Data validation first.
The add-on is not in my Extensions menu
Close the spreadsheet tab and open it again. Google only builds the Extensions menu when a spreadsheet loads, so anything installed while a sheet was already open will not appear until the next load.
I am signed into more than one Google account
When you are signed into several accounts at once, Chrome numbers them in the address bar as /u/0/, /u/1/ and so on. An add-on installed on /u/0/ will not appear when you are working in /u/1/. It is not lost. You are in a different account.
Quickest test: open the spreadsheet in an incognito window, sign into one account only, and see whether it behaves.
My work or school account will not let me install it
Google Workspace administrators can block add-ons across a whole organisation. If you see a message about your administrator, or the install button does nothing at all, you will need to ask your IT team to allow it. We cannot override that from our end, which is rather the point of the setting.
Still stuck?
Tell us what happened and we will help.
To get a useful answer first time, tell us what your list looks like, which step you got to, and what the sidebar said. A screenshot of your list and the sidebar together is worth about four paragraphs.
We are a small operation rather than a call centre, so you will get a real person. It just may not be instant.