Susan,
        Try this formula in Excel
        =CONCATENATE(MID(A1,FIND(",",A1,1)+1,1),MID(A1,1,1))
        where A1 is the cell containing the name
        HTH
Alex Estacio

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Sutherland" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2000 6:49 PM
Subject: [PCSOFT] Find and Replace in Word/Excel...Access?


> I have a task that for a non-programmer is rather daunting. It sounds
simple
> until you try to to it. I have an Excel file, and within the file is a
> column of names in the form of:
>
> Smith,Bob
>
> or sometimes
>
> Smith,Bob J.
>
> What I am required to do is change the names to just initials (first and
> last) so that "Smith, Bob" becomes "BS". (This is for privacy
reasons...the
> rest of the file info will be shared publicly.) The Find/replace feature
in
> Excel isn't fancy, so I pasted the column into a Word document, which at
> least has wildcards and so forth.
>
> I can "find" the names rather inelegantly by searching for
> "any character followed immediately by a comma followed by any character"
> (using the Word Find expressions available)..but telling it to replace is
> another story. I think this is too much to ask of a word processor. I
> thought of importing it into Access and using an update query, but to be
> honest I don't know enough to make Access do what I want. I also am not
> familiar enough with Macros to do much there. I am thinking this is a task
> for Visual Basic or something along that line...but as I say, I am no
> programmer.
>
> This task needs to be performed on many thousands of names. Any
suggestions
> are appreciated. I realize I simply may not know enough to perform this
task
> in a reasonable period of time.
>
> Susan Sutherland
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