Wow! This is a feature I would like to have available on Excel, but until Microsoft wakes up, I’ll surely be giving Google Docs a try. Sometimes I have to create forms, in which some cells can only accept a certain type of data. When working on Excel to accomplish this goal, I usually can’t find a native way to validate the data without putting my VBA skills to work. (Note: as I’m not a heavy Excel user, let me know if I’m missing a feature already available in Excel).

Google has added a great feature to Google Spreadsheets, which allows users to determine which cells should match a specific data type. And there’s more; we can also decide whether invalid data will be automatically rejected or if just a warning will be given.

Here’s a quote from Google Blogoscoped about the new feature:

“For instance, you can select a column which is supposed to contain email addresses only. Now pick Tools -> Data Validation from the menu. You’ll be offered to restrict the cell content to only certain types of numbers, texts, or dates. Each type contains further restrictions; for instance, a text may be set so it must contain a certain string, or be an email, or be a valid URL.”

Thank you for this nice feature. Way to go Google!