You could format those cells to "WingDings 2".

Then, if you typed an upper case "P" (no quotes - might also mean
'present'<g),
You'd display a tick.

Then, *don't add* them, COUNT them instead.

=COUNTIF(A1:K1,"P")
--
HTH,

RD

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"Scrap Monkey" <Scrap wrote in message
...
I want to use a 'tick' symbol in a spread sheet recording attendance. I
would
like to then total the number of ticks in a row. How do I get Excel to
give
each cell with a tick a value of 1 so that I can simply use the auto sum
facility at the end of the row?