The names could be in any column/cell in any worksheet in any of 12 workbooks?

You could use a formula like this:

=COUNTIF([book1.xls]Sheet1!$1:$65536,"peter syvertsen")

for each worksheet in each workbook for each name.

Or (if the name could be in a cell with other stuff):
=COUNTIF([book1.xls]Sheet1!$1:$65536,"*peter syvertsen*")

I'd open all 12 workbooks when I did this. It could be quite a delay to
evaluate lots of these formulas -- especially when the other workbooks are
closed (and it might be longer than you think when they're open, too!).




Peter Syvertsen wrote:

I have a simple question (perhaps).

I have 12 seperate workbooks with lists of names, contact info, etc. Many
of the names appear in more than one worksheet. The names are all entered in
separate fields within the worksheets. I would like to do an analysis of the
data showing which names appear most often , least often - etc. Is there a
simple (relatively) way to do this with excel? Or any other app - ?

may thanks for any advice.
--
Peter Syvertsen

--

Dave Peterson