Hi Mikeice,

Try this ARRAY formula (has to be confirmed by Ctrl+Shift+Enter, not just
Enter):

=IF(OR((LARGE((MID(A1&CHAR(10),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&L EN(A1)+1)),1)=CHAR(10))*ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)+ 1)),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,CHAR(10),""))+1)))-LARGE((MID(A1&CHAR(10),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)+1 )),1)=CHAR(10))*ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)+1)),1+RO W(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,CHAR(10),""))+1))))255),"PLEASE
GO BACK TO "&CELL("address",A1)&" and PUT IN AN ALT ENTER","")

Unfortunately, adding another IF, which would check if A1 is empty, would
excede the 7 levels of functions nesting. So if you really need that you
could use two cells say:

(this one is array entered)
[B1]
=OR((LARGE((MID(A1&CHAR(10),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN( A1)+1)),1)=CHAR(10))*ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)+1)) ,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,CHAR(10),""))+1)))-LARGE((MID(A1&CHAR(10),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)+1 )),1)=CHAR(10))*ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)+1)),1+RO W(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,CHAR(10),""))+1))))255)

[C1] =IF(ISERROR(B1],"",IF(B1,"PLEASE GO BACK TO "&CELL("address",A1)&" and
PUT IN AN ALT ENTER",""))

Regards,
KL


"Mikeice" wrote in
message ...

I currently have a cell with formula
=IF(E10="","","Characters")

So it returns the number of characters input in cell -

=IF(B11="","",IF(B11255,"PLEASE GO BACK TO E10 and
PUT IN AN ALT ENTER",""))

What I want is either the amount of characters between the Alt Enters
or if the alt enters are inserted and the text is less than 255 between
those returns that the message doesn't appear.

is that possibel?




--
Mikeice
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