I tried researching the group, but there wasn't any response that
exactly matched what I had in mind, or at least that I could
interpret.  I am trying to make a tally sort of similiar to the way
countif works, but I have 2 criteria instead of 1.  For instance,
countif anything in column A from worksheetB matches the value in Cell
A2 on worksheetA  -and- if anything in Column D of worksheetB matches
the value in cell D33 on worksheetA... so logically it would be
COUNTIF(worksheetB!A:A,A2 only if the same row also in columnK
worksheetB has the value stored in D33 on worksheetA)

visually it would look like:
wksA:
wksB:

A           B            C         D
A             B             C           D
Name                          Status'
johnd       0x183                     held
johnd                             purged
johnd       0x184                     held
janed                             review
johnd       0x185                     review
                                    sent
                                    held
----
how would i be able to count if john's name shows up in column a on
wksB only if it also has "held" in column D of the same row john's
name appears?
would sumproduct be able to achieve this?  Or does sumproduct only
work for numbers and dates?

-Marcus