Here was my original question and situation:

"How can I write a formula that will count all null cells within a column,
but
only if another column is also null for that row?

Situation: I am using Excel to track training of personnel for the
company.(I know, it would probably be better done in Access. Still teaching
myself Access though. So for the time being, I am keeping it in Excel, and
will convert to Access at a later date.) I need to see who still needs to be
trained in a certain course. Problem is that some students no longer work for
the company. I want to eliminate these people from the "needs training" tally
without removing them from the entire worksheet. I have it set up so that the
courses is are in columns and students in rows. Also in columns I have placed
personnel information, such as SS#, check in date, nicknames, etc. One
column is labeled for "checked out"; as in, they don't work here anymore.
This is the column I need to refer to for arguments. I want write a formula
that will count all blank cells for the specific course column, so long as
the "Checked Out" cell for that person is null (empty) too. Is this possible?"

We came up with these formulas to count the blanks(both seem to work):
=SUMPRODUCT(ISBLANK(P2:P1199)*ISBLANK($A$2:$A$1199 ))
or
=SUM(IF(ISBLANK(P2:P1199),1,0)*IF(ISBLANK($A$2:$A$ 1199),1,0))

NEW QUESTION:
I need to add a third column as a arguments, only this time I don't need it
to check for if it is blank, but for a specififc value ("Y"). Here is what I
had tried, but Neither worked:
=SUM(IF(ISBLANK(P2:P1199),1,0)*IF(ISBLANK($A$2:$A$ 1199),1,0)*IF($N$2:$N$1199,"Y"))
and
=SUMPRODUCT(ISBLANK(P2:P1199)*ISBLANK($A$2:$A$1199 )*IF($N$2:$N$1199,"Y"))

Any help would be greatly appreciated!