You don't explain what "tripped up" means but I notice that the word
UNCLASSIFIED has to be in quotes. The second thing I see is that in the
original formula your range_lookup is FALSE, return an exact match, but not
in the formula with the IF. So the range_lookup defaults to TRUE - return an
exact or approximate match. So, if you want FALSE:

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(C3,'[filename.xls]tabname'!$A:$F,5,FALSE)),"UNCLASSIFIED",VLOOKUP(C3 ,'[filename]tabname'!$A:$F,5,FALSE))

Tyro


"steph" wrote in message
...
I've scoured this site for the past hour and can't seem to use any of your
suggestions to get my formula to work. I'm sure it's just a misplaced
character or something but can someone help?

If my VLOOKUP value is not found in a second workbook, I need to return
the
word UNCLASSIFIED. If the value is found, return the value 5 columns to
the
right.

Here is my formula:
equalIF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(C3,'[filename.xls]tabname'!$A:$F,5)),UNCLASSIFIED,VLOOKUP(C3,'[filename]tabname'!$A:$F,5))

I can get the VLOOKUP to work fine using:
equalVLOOKUP(C3,'[filename]tabname'!$A:$F,5,FALSE)
But I get tripped up when trying to add the IF statement to it.

--
Thanks so much!