One possibility would be to use the text to columns function to get these
names into separate columns and then run the LEFT function to extract the
first character.

Example:

Billy Bob Thornton

becomes

Billy | Bob | Thornton

where | indicates a new column.

Assume these words are in A1, B1, C1

=LEFT(A1,1) returns B
=LEFT(B1,1) returns B
=LEFT(C1,1) returns T
=CONCATENATE(LEFT(A1,1)," ",LEFT(B1,1)," ",LEFT(C1,1)) returns B B T

Does that help?

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"Lupe" wrote:

Hi,
We received a list of names of persons we need to sent letters to. The last
name is okay in a separate cell. The first , 2nd (and 3rd) names are all in
one cell, but we want to extract only the initials. The cells are not
consistent as some cells have the full first name and then 2nd and/or 3rd
initial(s), some also have the full 2nd name. In worst case scenario I
thought of only extracting the initial of the first name.
Examples: Diane M. needs to be DM
Laura Mary needs to be LM
Laura Mary C. needs to be LMC
If any of you can help me it will be great.
Thanks, Lupe