PLEASE HELP: COUNTIF text is in the cell

Hello,

I am trying to work on a COUNTIF formula to count the number of times text is entered into a cell in a particular column. The Excel spreadsheet I have created is a tracking tool for negative responses to a survey. On the summary tab, I would like to count how many times there is a negative response. There is one column on the monthly tracking tabs that is titled "Reason for Follow-up," I would like it to count 1 for every time there is a response in this column. The words in the cell do not matter on the summary page, just the number of times it occurs per month. I know this is not the correct formula but this is what I am trying to figure out.

=COUNTIF('January 2014'!Q2:Q50,text is entered)

I know that I can make a formula like =COUNTIF('January 2014'!Q2:Q50,"Y") but I am trying to avoid adding an extra column for "Is there a reason to follow-up? Y or N." I would just like it to count if there is any text entered at all. What could I enter to for the criteria? The "texted is entered" part? Any help in this matter would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Try

=COUNTIF('January 2014'!Q2:Q50,"<>")

YES! That worked, of course it would be so simple that it would be impossible for me to figure out on my own. Thank you Jonmo1, I appreciate it.

Glad to help, but I think etaf's solution is probably better.

Oh yes this is nice and clean, thanks. I'd never known there was a CountA formula.