On Thu, 12 Jul 2012 21:19:12 +0000, GER9999 wrote:


Not exactly new to Excel but since retiring 5 yrs ago everything I knew
(which wasn't much) has gone out the back door. I have researched this
site and seen this question pop up in many ways but none of the
solutions given work for what I am trying to do. So I will explain what
I am doing and maybe that will help.

Here is what I am trying to do.

I listen to shortwave radio. I copy cut number Morse code stations. Cut
numbers are numbers that have been shortened so it doesn't take as much
time to send them. To cut a long story short (pun intended) short
letters are used to represent numbers. Example:

A=1 N=2 D=3 U=4 W=5 R=6 I=7 G=8 M=9 T=0 (Those letters are chosen
because they are short and easy to send.)

So to send the five number group 87390
I would send GIDMT

So as I sit at my desk in front of my radio copying these numbers
(always in groups of five) it looks like this.

AMITU RIMWD NIMTA UNDWR TIWDA (and so on)

By now you have guessed where I am going. I want to copy five letters
per cell, hit tab and copy the next five letters.......then when
finished or even as I type I want the letters to convert to the numbers
they represent.

Thanks for helping if you can. By the way, do you think this could be
done in MS Word instead of Excel?

GER9999

To convert that five character string of letters, into a number, can be done with a formula.
With your five character string in A1,

=SUMPRODUCT(MATCH(MID(A1,{1,2,3,4,5},1),$I$1:$I$10 ,0)-1,10^{4,3,2,1,0})

where I1:I10 contain the letters above in the order matching zero to nine. In other words, T comes first.

T
A
V
D
U
W
R
I
G
M

For your other requirements.
As far as I know, it is not possible to convert the letters as you type them.
If you want the letters to be replaced after you tab to the next cell, you will need an event triggered VBA macro. Is that necessary?
I'd guess it's possible in Word using a macro.