Since it doesn't line up the same, there is a good chance that there are
spaces before or after the "Smith"
On one of Smiths which did not format (Say A3)
in a empty cell enter
=A3=trim(A3) itf the answer is false ithere are probably spaces.

"Alex" wrote:

Hello

I built a macro that will go through a list of data and higlight in bold
type cells that are of a certain value. The values are text e.g. Smith,
Jones, etc.

I get new values each month from an external source in a .xls file. If I
right click those new values they are formatted as general with alignment
general and bottom.

That format is exactly the same as the ones in the excel sheet that I paste
the new values to. However, when I run my macro it fails to highlight cells.

For example, suppose for May-05 I have 'Smith' in cell A1 and for Jun-05 I
have 'Smith' in cell A2. When I ask the macro to highlight all values called
'Smith' it only highlights A1 and not A2.

When i check the fomat of the cells they are exactly the same. Why is this
happening?

Possible clue: when I cut and paste the from cell A1 to A2 the 'Smith' in
cell A2 shifts position slightly as if it weren't formatted exactly the same
as A1. However, I cannot find out why that disparity is occuring.

Any thoughts would be useful...

Thanks

Alex