Hi Diski,

Drop Down Arrow from AutoFilter|Text Filter|Custom Filter|is greater than

enter "Tm" if that is where you left off

you can also play around with the contains option - enter "T*y" if it looks
like the name begins with T and ends with y.

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If this post helps click Yes
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Peggy Shepard


"Diski" wrote:

I am not sure how to explain myself clearly, and hope you all know what I am
tryng to say!
I use the filters a lot in Excel. The majority of the time when filtering, I
use it to compare names from an old church register that are in very poor
condition. There are thousands of names that I need to filter. When I want to
see if there is a Thomas Smith that married Mary Browne in 1850, thats easy
to do since the writing just happened to be clear. MOST of the time though,
it isen't. So, when this couple starts having children, the christenings
might read like this in the register:
J? n born to T????? ??yt? and M??? ?r???

The T could be Thomas Tom Tony Terrance Thadeus Timothy, etc. The same
situation with all the other names. I have to examine each columns filters
and the various spelling varients to find possible matches. When I filter the
first name for ' T ' possibilities, I click the pull down arrow, scroll to
the T names and select one. I examine the possible choices. Then, to look at
another potential name, I again click the pull down- but here is where the
problems lay. Instead of being in the T area which is my last selection, its
back up at the very top near the A's, and I would REALLY love to have it at
the T so I don't have to page or scroll down to my last selection.
Can it be possible to have it go automatically to my last selection? Yes, I
know all I have to do is type ' T ', but there could be 15 choices at least,
and want it by my last section. I have to do that with every name I can't
read clearly, and it gets annoying and time consuming to be so repetitive. It
would be so much more efficient going to my last selection automatically.

I hope I made myself clear!


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Thanks for the help,
Diski

**running Vista Home Premium 64-bit OS.