XL98: Conditional Formats May Not Work for Cells with Rich Text Formatting (181901)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition
This article was previously published under Q181901

SYMPTOMS

If you apply a conditional number format to a cell, and the condition for the format for the cell is met, Microsoft Excel may fail to apply the formatting that you specify to the contents of the entire cell.

CAUSE

The formatting that you specify for a conditional number format may not be applied to the contents of the entire cell if the cell contains rich text formatting (for example, bold text).

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, remove any rich text formatting in the cell.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Example

To see an example of the problem that is described in the "Symptoms" section in this article, follow these steps:
  1. Create a new worksheet and enter the following in Sheet1:

    A1: this is rich-text

  2. Double-click cell A1 to activate in-cell editing.
  3. Select only the words "rich-text" in cell A1, and then click Cells on the Format menu.
  4. In the Format Cells dialog box, click Bold in the Font Style list, and then click OK.
  5. Press RETURN.

    Note that the "rich-text" portion of cell A1 is bold.
  6. Select cell A1, and then click Conditional Formatting on the Format menu.
  7. In the Conditional Formatting dialog box, select Cell Value Is in the first list box and Equal To in the second list box, and then type this is rich-text in the box to the right of the second list box.
  8. Click Format. On the Font tab in the Format Cells dialog box, click a red color in the Color box, and then click OK.

    When cell A1 contains the text "this is rich-text" (without the quotation marks), the text in the cell will change to a red font style.
  9. Click OK in the Conditional Formatting dialog box.
NOTE: Only the "this is" portion of cell A1 is changed to a red font style.

REFERENCES

For more information about conditional formatting, click Contents And Index on the Help menu (or on the Balloon Help menu if you are using a version of the Macintosh operating system earlier than 8.0), click the Index button in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

conditional formats

and then click Show Topics. Select the "Highlight data that meets conditions you specify" topic, and click Go To. If you are unable to find the information you need, ask the Office Assistant.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:9/11/2002
Keywords:kbbug kbui KB181901
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.