I'll try to make this make as much sense as possible...

Okay, so I receive orders from customers - each order includes all of
the items they ordered (therefore each order includes multiple item
numbers) - I then use Excel to tally up all of the orders.

There are two different things I need:

1 - How can I, after typing all of the orders into Excel, count up how
many of each item needs to be ordered (without scrolling down and
counting every time that item number appears...as I have to do now)?

2 - When I type an item number, I'd like the description of the item to
automatically pop up into the column next to it. Is it possible to save
a list of item numbers with their description so that can happen?


Any help would be much appreciated!


--
nut_mom
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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For number 1, you should look into using a pivot table. For
number 2, have a look at the VLOOKUP function.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com


"nut_mom"
wrote in message
...

I'll try to make this make as much sense as possible...

Okay, so I receive orders from customers - each order includes
all of
the items they ordered (therefore each order includes multiple
item
numbers) - I then use Excel to tally up all of the orders.

There are two different things I need:

1 - How can I, after typing all of the orders into Excel, count
up how
many of each item needs to be ordered (without scrolling down
and
counting every time that item number appears...as I have to do
now)?

2 - When I type an item number, I'd like the description of the
item to
automatically pop up into the column next to it. Is it
possible to save
a list of item numbers with their description so that can
happen?


Any help would be much appreciated!


--
nut_mom
------------------------------------------------------------------------
nut_mom's Profile:
http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=35864
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http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=556565

You can put a table with the order numbers in the leftmost column and their
descriptions in the next to the right, pout it in another sheet or off the
view, then use a vlookup formula like

=IF(B2="","",VLOOKUP(B2,Sheet2!A2:B500,2,0))

where B2 would be a cell where you type in the order number and sheet2
A2:B500 the table with the numbers and their descriptions

see help for VLOOKUP

--

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

Excel 95 - Excel 2007
Northwest Excel Solutions
www.nwexcelsolutions.com
"It is a good thing to follow the first law of holes;
if you are in one stop digging." Lord Healey


"nut_mom" wrote in
message ...

I'll try to make this make as much sense as possible...

Okay, so I receive orders from customers - each order includes all of
the items they ordered (therefore each order includes multiple item
numbers) - I then use Excel to tally up all of the orders.

There are two different things I need:

1 - How can I, after typing all of the orders into Excel, count up how
many of each item needs to be ordered (without scrolling down and
counting every time that item number appears...as I have to do now)?

2 - When I type an item number, I'd like the description of the item to
automatically pop up into the column next to it. Is it possible to save
a list of item numbers with their description so that can happen?


Any help would be much appreciated!


--
nut_mom
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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I am not sure how your invoices are set up, so the first question is a
little bit hard to answer. Perhaps a sum or sumif command?

for the second one, you can set up a table and do a vlookup.


--
Bearacade


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