We have a straightforward opinion here: the person asking this question should not have to apologize for being new to Excel, and the fact that they are manually clicking 150 checkboxes is not their fault, it is the fault of a tool that has not evolved. This user, who works with a master list of 2,500 items and needs to isolate only 150, has discovered the painful limit of traditional spreadsheet filtering. They are doing exactly what the software asks: one click, one uncheck, one scroll, one checkbox at a time. That is not a skill issue. It is a design issue.
The practical problem is simple. When you have a list that large, the manual filter workflow breaks down. The drop-down menu becomes a chore. Unchecking "Select All" and then hunting for 150 specific items is not filtering, it is data archaeology. The user is not asking for something exotic. They want to say, "Here are the 150 items I care about," and have the spreadsheet do the rest. That should be a basic expectation, not a workaround that requires scripting or third-party plugins. In a modern tool, you should be able to paste a list of values and instantly see only those rows. You should be able to type or import your criteria, not click each one.
This is where the conversation shifts from "how do I do this in Excel" to "why am I still doing this at all." The user's frustration is legitimate, and it points to a larger truth: the tools we rely on for data work were built for a world where 2,500 items felt like a lot. Today, that is a Tuesday morning. The expectation for how we interact with data has changed, but the spreadsheet has not kept up. An AI-native approach would let you describe what you need in natural language or simply reference a list, and the system would handle the rest. No checkbox marathon. No apology for not knowing a "common" trick.
Our take is this: you should not have to adapt your workflow to the limitations of a thirty-year-old interface. The user with the 2,500-item master list deserves a tool that meets them where they are, not one that forces them to become a manual filter operator. The solution is not to learn more Excel tricks. It is to explore a spreadsheet that treats your time and your list as the priority. Stop clicking. Start telling the tool what you need.