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Real Time Character Count for a cell?

  1. #1
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    Real Time Character Count for a cell?

    Hello,

    I'm hoping that someone can tell me how to create a formula that will allow Excel to count characters in real time as I type them.

    Is this possible?

    I know about the LEN formula, but that requires that I hit return and move on to the next cell, so that isn't as desirable as a real-time character counter.

    I'll explain what I'm trying to accomplish and maybe some guru out there will have a slick way to accomplish it.
    I text a lot from the Messages program on my Mac. Having said that, I can send some rather lengthy text messages. As we all know, phone companies still chunk down text messages into approximately 140 character blocks (even though, at least on iPhones, we still see the entire message in bulk, not broken down into said 140 character blocks). Anyway, a friend I've been doing some heavy texting with is getting my long texts broken down into 140 character blocks....but her phone company is sending those blocks out of order, which of course makes reading my reply like an episode of Columbo or CSI.
    What I'm trying to do is type out my replies in a cell (say A1), and in cell A2 have it count the characters I'm typing in real time so that when I see that I'm getting close to the 140 character cut off, I can hit Return and continue typing in the next cell. Then, I will just send my friend my reply cell by cell, and in doing so, I know that she'll get them IN THE ORDER I wrote them, instead of the phone company just randomly sending her whatever 140 character string it feels like, in whatever order it feels like.

    So, if anybody has a way to do character count in real time IN EXCEL, please let me know.
    What would be even better is if there were a way to have Excel count my characters while I was typing and as soon as I got to say 135 characters, Excel would just automatically move me to the next cell down and I wouldn't have to break my stride.

    Thanks,

    J.

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    Re: Real Time Character Count for a cell?

    How about this? just type like mad in the userform and let VBA do the rest
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    Re: Real Time Character Count for a cell?

    This is a nifty little solution.
    However, I notice that it not only "locks down" the spreadsheet you created it in, but also all of my other spreadsheets.
    What I'd like to do is be able to type up until I reach about 130 characters, then have a macro program I have cut-n-paste that string of text into my spreadsheet (but I can't do that if ALL of my spreadsheets are locked down while the VBA userform is running).
    Any thoughts?

    Thanks again,

    Justin

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