Well, Abbo, I'm confused.

In your first post, you said the for product 2.00*08, the tolerance was 8.0mm
+/- 0.2mm, because the tolerance was based on the part number.

Now you say it's 8.5mm +/- 0.2mm, and it's a spec, not a formula. So we'll go
with that. You will, of course, have to store the specs (or look them up) in
your file.

You say you have 6 columns (A-F) in your spreadsheet, so let's assume you put
the spec length in G and the spec tolerance in H. I'm also assuming row 1 is the
column titles, and your data starts in row 2.

In d2, you would put the following conditional format:

=ABS(D2-G2)H2

After you enter the formula, tell Excel what format you want to appear if the
condition is true (ie, the length is outside the specs). Typical formats are a
colored pattern.

Then copy down the format for the length of the column. The easiest way to do
this is to right-click on the fill button (the little square in the bottom right
hand corner), drag it down the length of the column, release the mouse button,
and choose Fill formatting only.

--
Regards,
Fred


"Fred Smith" wrote in message
...
OK, if it's not stored as text, how is it stored? If you put 2.00*08 in a
cell, and it's not text, Excel will treat it as a formula, which will generate
a result of 16. How can we determine the dimensions from this result?

--
Regards,
Fred


"Abbo" wrote in message
...
its not stored as text,
it can be, and yes its always in the same format

regards
Abbo

"Fred Smith" wrote:

Sorry, Abbo, I still need my questions answered. Most importantly, is the
value
(eg, 2.00*08), stored as text, and is it always in the same format?

--
Regards,
Fred


"Abbo" wrote in message
...
very sorry fred i got mixed up,
to clarify that value(2.00*08) is two dimensions, width by length so its
2.0mm by 8.0mm.
for each product size there is a spec for the distance between the outer
ends (marker distance) which is a bit longer. so for product size 2.00*08
its
8.5mm +/- 0.2 basically these are all known spec. for the 2.50*08 it would
be
8.7mm +/- 0.2mm there is no formula to it its just a given spec (that we
know) for a givin product size.
the product size is always given that way 2.00*08, 2.00*23, 2.25*12,
4.00*28
hope this clarifies
regards
Abbo



"Fred Smith" wrote:

Conditional formatting will do the first part of what you want to do.
However,
you will need to specify how to decipher the Part Length in column A.
Specifically, how do you get from "2.00*08" to 8.0 +/- 0.2?

Is column A a text cell?
Is the format always going to be x.xx*yy?
Will the tolerance factor (x.xx) always be one digit before the decimal,
and
two
after?
Will the length (yy) always be two digits?
To get the tolerance, is the formula x.xx/10?

--
Regards,
Fred


"Abbo" wrote in message
...
Hi fred thanks for gettin back,
this what the sheet looks like at the mo,

Part Size Lot # Crimped Marker balloon proximal
distal
Length Distance Length Shoulder Shoulder
2.00*08 6062931 8.186 8.379 9.499 0.308 -0.788
2.00*08 6062832 N/A 8.17 9.295 0.218 -0.428
2.50*12 6062931 N/A 8.362 8.6 0.141 -0.121

there are six columns basically we measure parts then put these results
into
excel.
theres part size and product lot# the rest a measurements we take.

what i would like to be able to do is have a tolerance for the value in
coulnm D depending on what part size. so for 2.00*08 it is 8.0 +- 0.2
ie it
can have a value anywhere between 7.8 and 8.2.for the first entry it is
outside this tolerance, so it would be highlighted.
for each product size the amoumt of products out of tolerance would be
totaled. so for 2.00*08 this would = 1, as the other 1 is in
spec,...with
me
so far?

now, idealy, and i dunno if this can be done but, i would like to have
some
sort of function to compare the coloumn B values of the highlighted
enteries. if the same give a value of 1 if there are two different
values
give a 2 if there are three etc.
so for our example 2.00*08 there are two different lot numbers so in
some
other column it would give a value of 2.
basically thats what i need, the sheet then is updated every day ie we
measure and enter about 40 parts a day into the sheet.

could i do this with conditional format? do i need multiple sheets
maybe
for
each product size currently there all lumped onto 1 sheet
any help would be great thanks