--Given--
_________________________
A B C D
1 Fred Fred
2 apple red
3 red blue
4 now
_________________________

I am using a UDF to return the value:
"Fred Fred apple red red blue now"
I would like to have:
"Fred(2) apple red(2) blue now" <--- duplicate entries counted
but removed
Or even better:
"apple, blue, Fred(2), now, red(2)" <---Alphabatized with commas
between the entries

Ideally it would even ignore variations in capitalization (FrEd = fred
= Fred) and report everything in ALL CAPS.

This is the VBA as it is now:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Function join_function(MyRng As Range)
Dim MyCell As Range
Dim output As String
For Each MyCell In MyRng
Found = False
If Application.WorksheetFunction.IsText(MyCell) = True Then
output = output & MyCell.Value & " "
End If
Next
join_function = output

End Function
------------------------------------------------------------------
and I am calling it from inside a cell like this:
=join_function(A1:D4) or =join_function(NamedRange)
***
The function is used in an activity tracking WorkBook that has 4
cells labeled "OTHER" for each day. It is used to produces Weekly,
Quarterly, Semi-Annual, and Annual totals for 12 employees (each
employee has a seperate sheet). These summaries are retreived via an
INDEX(MATCH()) on another worksheet and reported by a MsgBox from a
command button.

I can live with it the way it is now, but... well... we all always
want more :)