Let's say the serial numbers is entered in A1
The B1 could have formula =IF(A1=12345678,"Needs an FAI","")
But that would limit you to seven 'notes'
On another sheet make a table of serial numbers and their notes
12345678 This product requires an FAI
33333333 This product must be sent by air
45656754 This product explodes on contact with water

Then on the main worksheet use a formula like
=VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet2!A1:B50,2,FALSE)
Note you will get a result of #N/A for serial numbers without an entry in
the table
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Bryan" wrote in message
...
What I need to do is when the user enters certain values in a cell, they
get
a flag to indicate that the item is on a list. We enter a lot of values
in
our Serial Number spreadsheet. There are certain values though, that need
to
get the users attention. I know how to do it directly from the cell, but
that is too limited and awkward to change as these values will need to be
updated from time to time. For instance, if the user enters "12345678" he
will get a message, "This product requires an FAI!" I don't care how that
works, i.e., popup or something in an adjacent cell. Any ideas how to do
that?

Thanks,
Bryan