If you have XL 2003, use View/Toolbars to show the Formula Auditing toolbar,
select the cell with the SUMPRODCUT, use the Evaluate Function item (last
icon) on the Formula Auditing toolbar, This should help you see how the
formula evolves

I typed a D into cell C16 and modified my formula to read
=SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF(INDIRECT("'"&A2:A4&"'!D3"),C16 ))
and it returned the correct value

This change lets me copy the formula to other cells
=SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF(INDIRECT("'"&$A$2:$A$4&"'!D3") ,C18))

I typed a D3 into cell B16 and modified my formula to read
=SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF(INDIRECT("'"&$A$2:$A$4&"'!"&B1 6),C16))
and it returned the correct value
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Mrfish" wrote in message
...
Genius. This is exactly what I wanted and I've made it work in one cell.

However I don't really understand how it works, can you explain?

Second small issue - I want to copy the formula out across rows and
columns,
and currently the D3 part is fixed. Is there an easy change to unfix the
reference?

Many thanks!

"Bernard Liengme" wrote:

=SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF(INDIRECT("'"&A2:A4&"'!D3"),"D" ))
where A2:A4 holds the names of each sheet to be used -- extend if needed
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Mrfish" wrote in message
...
I would like to do a 3d countif across multiple sheets. I simply want to
count the cells containing 'D's. Something like
=COUNTIF(Start:End!D43,"D")
would be ideal if it worked!

Unfortunately I see now that countif() doesn't work with a 3d
reference. I
see some other answers here have used a =sumproduct(n(... function to
get
round this, but didn't understand it.

Can anyone here help?