Merge groups of cells in relation to column A

Question

I've been trying to figure this out for a while.

I need to go from this:

Column A    Column B
Thing 1     1a.jpg
            1b.jpg
            1c.jpg
            1d.jpg
Thing 2     2a.jpg
            2b.jpg
            2c.jpg
Thing 3     3a.jpg
            3b.jpg
            3c.jpg
            3d.jpg
            3e.jpg
            3f.jpg

To this:

Column A    Column B
Thing 1     1a.jpg;1b.jpg;1c.jpg;1d.jpg
Thing 2     2a.jpg;2b.jpg;2c.jpg

etc etc.

I hope one of you talented folk out there can help me!

I am using Office 2003, but have access to other versions.

Answer 1

If you don't mind using a filter and deleting some columns, then I would suggest this:

=IF(ISBLANK(A2),CONCATENATE(B1,";",C2),B1)

Assuming that the first line is on row 1, then copied down.

You then need to copy/paste values in place on this column to remove the formulas.

Last, insert a filter and delete all rows with blanks in column A.