try

If InStr(ActiveCell, "total") 0 Then MsgBox "its there"

--
Don Guillett
SalesAid Software

"Pete" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I am a novice with VBA and am trying to put an if statement which detects
whether the cell contains the word "total" within the cell (there will be
text before and after it).

I have tried :
If ActiveCell.value = "*total*" Then
but this doesn't work.

Many Thanks in advance
Pete