Does COUNTIF span multiple Tables?

The following is from pg 39, of Forumlas_and_Functions_USer_Guide.pdf" :

Some functions that accept ranges can operate on ranges that span multiple tables.

I can't get COUNTIF to accept multiple tables.....

I pasted about 45 tables from a word document into a numbers document, and it created the 45 Tables.

They all have the same structure 3 columns and row 1 contains the column headers.

For example:

Table 1

Table 2

I want to create a single table that basically 'counts' the number of cells that contain a specific Element:

I can get the COUNTA function to span multiple tables...

=COUNTA(Table 1:Table 2 :: B) (would show 8)

But

=COUNTIF(Table 1:Table 2 :: B, "=Button") (shows 0)

Does COUNTIF span multiple tables? if why does it not work... I've tried a number of different 'conditions'...

if not... is there anoter way to create a table full of totals from multiple tables?

thanks

drew