How to set number of characters within a cell in Excel 2003?

[Guest]

I want Excell 2003 to either limit me from putting a limited of character
within a cell. For example, I want only 10 characters within a cell, so
either I could set it up beforehand and excell will not let me put more than
10 characters or it could count how many characters I have in the cell with a
formula.

 

[Guest]

Data validation is exactly what you want:

Select the cells you want to restrict and pull-down:

Data > Validation > Allow text length > Less than > 11

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the quick respond. I went through this function a million time
but could not figure it. Thank you very much.