Perhaps

=$J$18<"See Note"

This will stop entry when J18 contains See Note (and display the message).
When the condition evaluates to True, then the entry is allowed, so you want
it to be true when J18 doesn't contain See Note. The comparison alone will
return true or false, you don't need the IF statement.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy

"Kevin Brenner" wrote in message
...
I need to create a formula to run under Validate, to say
something like this:
If J18 = "See Note" if TRUE then show message "need more
time" if False then the user can type any value(number)and
no message box willl appear.
I created a IF stament but the message pops up when it's
True or False!
IF(J18="See Note","","") and Many more variations of this
formula.

Thanks
Kevin Brenner