I also have a program that does permutations and sends the permutations to the Excel Spell Checker. But as Howard said, the number of permutations grows rapidly, and if the words aren't in the spell checker, like proper names, then it won't work.
So I took a different approach. If you already have a list of the unscrambled words, and it's just a matter of finding the matching word, then we can do it with a "simple" formula.
For example:
| A | B | C |
---|
Words | Match | | |
TNSHWOINGA | WASHINGTON | | |
GNOWNIHSA | | | |
WISOTGHNNA | WASHINGTON | | |
COLNLIN | LINCOLN | | |
colnlin | LINCOLN | | |
dorf | Ford | | |
jackons | Jackson | | |
| | | |
<colgroup><col style="width: 25pxpx"><col><col><col></colgroup><thead>
</thead><tbody>
[TD="align: center"]1[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: center"]2[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"]#N/A[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: center"]5[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: center"]6[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: center"]7[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: center"]8[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: center"]9[/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"][/TD]
[TD="align: right"]0[/TD]
</tbody>
Sheet1
[TABLE="width: 85%"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]
Worksheet Formulas[TABLE="width: 100%"]
<thead>[TR="bgcolor: [URL=https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=DAE7F5]#DAE7F5[/URL] "]
[TH="width: 10px"]Cell[/TH]
[TH="align: left"]Formula[/TH]
[/TR]
</thead><tbody>[TR]
[TH="width: 10px, bgcolor: [URL=https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=DAE7F5]#DAE7F5[/URL] "]C2[/TH]
[TD="align: left"]=LOOKUP(
2,1/(MMULT((LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(UPPER(A2),CHAR(COLUMN(INDIRECT("A:Z"))+64),""))=LEN(Sheet2!$A$2:$A$10)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(UPPER(Sheet2!$A$2:$A$10),CHAR(COLUMN(INDIRECT("A:Z"))+64),"")))+0,ROW(INDIRECT("1:26"))^0)=26),Sheet2!$A$2:$A$10)[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]
The way it works is by compiling a list of how many As, Bs, Cs, etc. are in the scrambled word. Then finding out how many As, Bs, Cs, etc. are in each of the reference words. If we get a match where every letter has the same count, then we've found the word.