entering a number and having a word appear in excel

[kdill]

Can anyone tell me, in microsoft excel, how do i type a number in a cell and
have a word appear in that same cell instead of the number. Is this even
possible.
For example: if i type in 7131 i want the word drafting to appear.

 

[Mike H]

Hi,

It's possible but only with code and I think you've simplified the problem
for the purposes of asking the question. If you explain in detail a more
complete list of substitutions then someone will help.

Mike

 

[kdill]

Thanks for the reply. I am a teacher and what i am trying to do is set up a
master schedule for all the courses in our school. Each course has a name
and a number associated with it. For instance the course number is 7131 and
the name is architecture. I am usually working with the course numbers, but
the teachers work with the course name. i want to set up a list of all the
names of the courses and have them linked to the the number, so that i can
type in the number to a master schedule and instead of that number displayed
in the cell i want the course name displayed in the cell.

 

[Mike H]

Hi,

Can I suggest a different approach which involves an additional column.
Build a table somewhere out of the way with course numbers and names. I used
columns I & J and it looks like this:

1 Math
2 Engineering
3 Physics
4 Chemistry
5 Latin
6 Spanish
7 Detention
8 Expulsion


Now lest say you enter course numbers in column A, put this in b1 and drag
down


=IF(COUNTA(A1)=0,"",VLOOKUP(A1,$I$1:$J$8,2,FALSE))


Now entering a course number in column A gives the descriptive name in
column B

Mike

 

[Glenn]

If you have to have this happen in the same cell, code is not your only option.
You could use AutoCorrect, although I would suggest using a prefix to avoid
problems. As an example, if you want "7131" to be changed to "Architecture", I
would use "**7131" so you could still enter "7131" if you needed it for
something else.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA010346301033.aspx?pid=CL100570551033