Anybody any good with Excel?

[ModernAndy]

Here's what I need to do:

I need to create a title/headline that is less than 100 characters but with as many characters as possible based on the concatenated text contents of a number of columns.

I have 3 components to the title; product type, application type and colour. Each of these has around 3-7 columns with descriptive terms (mostly single words, some 2 or 3 words). I also have a couple of 'toppers' to make up any available space; the first one is 'genuine' and the second one is 'quality'.

As stated above, each of the 3 components will be made up of several words, some of the less important will need to be sacrificed somehow if the character count goes over 100 (perhaps it would be best to prioritise them if possible). For example, if we were 5 characters over the limit and one part of the title was 'red vintage miniskirt' then 'vintage' would need to go.

I realise the solution will very likely be extremely complicated but can it be done at all?

(I appreciate that the PH biz forums isn't an Excel forum but thought there might be a few self-employed people with a lot of experience with it. Also, I've been trying to sort this out for the last couple of days so I have been giving it a bash and feel that I just need a couple of suggestions to get it right.)

[Mr Overheads]

mrexcel.com forums perfect for that. Someone will sort it for you

[Ultraviolet]

ModernAndy said:

some of the less important will need to be sacrificed somehow if the character count goes over 100

This will be the difficult / impossible bit...you're asking Excel to make a subjective decision for you..which it won't be able to do. The only thing I can think of is to create a list of words you are willing to sacrifice if the character count exceeds the limit, then build a lookup against this list within the concatenate function...I.e. Only concatenate the word if it doesn't appear on the 'sacrifice' list...

UV

[ModernAndy]

Ultraviolet said:

This will be the difficult / impossible bit...you're asking Excel to make a subjective decision for you..which it won't be able to do. The only thing I can think of is to create a list of words you are willing to sacrifice if the character count exceeds the limit, then build a lookup against this list within the concatenate function...I.e. Only concatenate the word if it doesn't appear on the 'sacrifice' list...

UV

Well yeah, that's the tricky bit I suppose. You might be onto something with your suggestion though.

[ModernAndy]

I think I've managed it using a series of IF's to select whether a column will have any text for concatenation which in turns inputs text into the title. Thanks for the help.

[ModernAndy]

Just to conclude the thread. I have managed it, it works. Once again, thanks for the help

[audi321]

ModernAndy said:

Just to conclude the thread. I have managed it, it works. Once again, thanks for the help

Come on then.....linky??

[ModernAndy]

audi321 said:

Come on then.....linky??

No link but if you want to do similar then I'll PM you instructions.