I want to check whether a value in one spreadsheet (call it spreadsheet A)
exists in up to 3 other spreadsheets (call them spreadsheets B, C & D all of
which exist in independent workbooks). What I want it to do is: 1. check
whether the value exists in s/s B, 2. if so make the value of the cell where
my search formula is "FALSE", 3. if the value isn't found in s/s B then check
for it in s/s C, 4. if it is found there make the value of the cell where by
formula is "FALSE", 5. if the value isn't found in s/s C either then check
s/s D 6. again returning the value "FALSE" if it is found there. So if the
value is found in any of the 3 external spreadsheets the value in my search
cell will be "FALSE", if my search value is not found in any of the
spreadsheets the cell value will be "TRUE". I can easily check for it in one
other worksheet using the =ISNA(MATCH...) function but I can't seem to work
out how to check more than 1 other worksheet.

I don't know the details of each s/s, and therefore how you're checking each
separately. But the combination should be something like:
=and(isna(match ss1 function),isna(match ss2 function),isna(match ss3
function))
Since AND requires all arguments to be TRUE in order to get a TRUE result,
you'll get TRUE only is each match returns na, that is each match failed.
--Bruce

"Robyn from Melbourne, Australia" wrote:

I want to check whether a value in one spreadsheet (call it spreadsheet A)
exists in up to 3 other spreadsheets (call them spreadsheets B, C & D all of
which exist in independent workbooks). What I want it to do is: 1. check
whether the value exists in s/s B, 2. if so make the value of the cell where
my search formula is "FALSE", 3. if the value isn't found in s/s B then check
for it in s/s C, 4. if it is found there make the value of the cell where by
formula is "FALSE", 5. if the value isn't found in s/s C either then check
s/s D 6. again returning the value "FALSE" if it is found there. So if the
value is found in any of the 3 external spreadsheets the value in my search
cell will be "FALSE", if my search value is not found in any of the
spreadsheets the cell value will be "TRUE". I can easily check for it in one
other worksheet using the =ISNA(MATCH...) function but I can't seem to work
out how to check more than 1 other worksheet.