If you want it to work in Excel, you may do better to ask in an Excel
newsgroup. This forum is for a different program, the database software
Microsoft Access. The webpage can be confusing!

I must say, though, that Access would almost surely be a better choice for
this application. It's got a steeper learning curve than Excel but it's
designed specifically to keep records, sort data any way you like
(alphabetical, chronological, etc.), link data in one table (correspondance)
to data in another (subject matter codes), calculate totals dynamically in
queries, etc.

You won't find a database all set up to do exactly what you describe, most
likely, but Access is a very capable toolkit to build such a database. Check
the resources at:

Jeff Conrad's resources page:
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/accessjunkie/resources.html

The Access Web resources page:
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html

A free tutorial written by Crystal (MS Access MVP):
http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html

MVP Allen Browne's tutorials:
http://allenbrowne.com/links.html#Tutorials

            John W. Vinson [MVP]

Thanks John I shall have to get my old computer running again that has access
2003  on it this new puter has vista and only has office home and student2007
no access Thank you again for your advice and help