Another possibility IF you only need to show the square brackets, but they
do NOT really need to be part of the text for use elsewhere in your
worksheet, then you could just Custom Format the cell using this Type
pattern...

"["@"]"

The cells will show names surrounded by the square brackets, but the value
in the cell (if you referenced it elsewhere) would be just the name itself.

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"Ecappello" wrote in message
...
Hi,
I have a list of first names in Excel 2003 spreadsheet and I need to
insert
square brackets around each first name. Is there a function I could use to
help me do this?
Thanks
Emma