Take a look at either Pivot Tables (my choice), or the COUNTIF function.

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Regards
Ken....................... Microsoft MVP - Excel
Sys Spec - Win XP Pro / XL 97/00/02/03

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It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission :-)
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"automatically counting text cells" <automatically counting text
wrote in message
...
trying to tabulate several different text values automatically ie. ranks
of
presonnel (private, sergeant, captain etc.) numbers or sergeants etc.