I don't think this is doable, but I thought I'd ask anyway, because the
people here are super smart and Excel is a monster application.

I have two XLS files that I use constantly to track attendance. The first is
a detailed list of visits, and the second is a monthly summary. Instead of
trying to explain this in words, please take a look at the following
screenshots (names have been erased for privacy concerns):

File 1: http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/8376/image1xx3.png
File 2: http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/4728/image2xs3.png

Now, I have been manually entering the data into File 2 that you see, but
I'd been wondering if it's possible to have Excel look for this data
automatically in File 1. That is, to take from, File 1, for instance,
attendance by DOE, JOHN on January 2, 2008 during SHIFT 1, and enter it in
File 2 as an A for the same person on the same date.

I realize this is very complex, but is it doable? I've made search on this
forum for data transfers but I'm not sure what I did find is applicable to my
sheets.