I don't think you'll find any formatting that'll help you.

But if your names are entered like:

Monee T. Man
(with a single character followed by a period)

Then you could use a formula like:
=IF(ISERROR(FIND(".",A1,1)),A1,TRIM(REPLACE(A1,FIN D(".",A1,1)-1,2,"")))

Put this in a nearby cell and copy down the length of your list.

If this doesn't help, you should share what your data looks like (not a
workbook--just some typical entries).

BMoneeTheMoneeMan wrote:

I have a column that has a list of first names. I want to format the cells so
that it will take out the middle initial if there is any. How can I do an
auto-format to have it take out the middle initial?
Thank
Brian

--

Dave Peterson