=COUNTIF(A:A,"*AD*")

should work.

HTH
Jason
Atlanta, GA

-----Original Message-----
I want to count how many times initials of employees
(e..g AD, AS, RR, AN,
VB, DO) appear in a specific column. I am using COUNT IF
function for that.

The problem is as soon as I put initials fof 2 employees
in one cell, the
formula does not recognise either of them.

To give you a gist, I want to see how many people work
out of office , so I
have a calendar style worksheet( month=col, date=row).
If I input AD on 13
day of jan, , I get 1 for AD, in the row where I am
collecting total for AD .
But if I put both AD, AS on 13 jan, then neither AD nor
AS gets recognised.

Please advise a suitable formula or an alternative
method.
Thanks
.