Ron:

One more question if I might. Does the conditional formatting feature in
Excel really limit me (as it appears to) to only three conditions? What if I
have 20 numbers in a spreadsheet, all in their own cells, and I want to be
able to see by looking at the sheet where all the numbers are by assigning
them all their own color? I would think there would be any easy way to do
this in Excel, but ... .

"Ron Coderre" wrote:

Please don't shy away from a tiny little pre-built formula just yet....

Try this:
Hold down the [alt] key and press the [f11] key....that opens the vba editor
Right-click on the workbook name
Select: Insert module.....that will open a General Module

Just copy this code and paste it into the module:

'--------start of code--------
Function CellFormula(rngCell As range) As String
Dim Bullpen As String

If rngCell.Cells.Count = 1 Then
Bullpen = CStr(rngCell.Formula)
If Len(Bullpen) 0 Then
CellFormula = Bullpen
Else
CellFormula = "(cell is empty)"
End If
Else
CellFormula = "invalid range"
End If
End Function
'--------end of code--------

That's it! Done!

Now you can use the cellformula() function.
Here's a way to test it:
Put any value in cell A1
B1: =cellformula(A1)

experiment with A1 values
(easy...yes?)

Is that something you can work with?
***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP


"Patrick" wrote:

Ron:

Thanks again. The good news is that this sounds GREAT! The "bad" news is
it sounds way beyond what I know how to do. :) Maybe I could put what you
want into a "general module" but at my level don't even know what that is or
where I would find it. I'd love to try and do appreciate all of your input.
In the meantime, I am transferring things to individual cells as a temporary
fix.

"Ron Coderre" wrote:

Well.....my response was pretty much off the mark, but see if this one gets
you what you want....

No regular Excel formula can look at the contents of a cell the way you want
it to.

For example:
If A1: =10/10
Then this formula =AND(A1=1,TEXT(A1,"general")="1") returns TRUE
...it can't "see" the actual contents.
and
this formula =CELL("contents",A1) returns 1 for the same reason.

However....Maybe you could use a User Defined Function?:
Put this code into a Genral Module...

Function CellFormula(rngCell As range) As String
Dim Bullpen As String
If rngCell.Cells.Count = 1 Then
Bullpen = CStr(rngCell.Formula)
If Len(Bullpen) 0 Then
CellFormula = Bullpen
Else
CellFormula = "(cell is empty)"
End If
Else
CellFormula = "invalid range"
End If
End Function

Then, for cell A1, the CF formula could be:
=cellformula(A1)="1"
and I think THAT would work.

I hope that helps.
***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP


"Ron Coderre" wrote:

I believe formatting individual characters only works for text....not numbers.

Maybe try this?:
Format the cells as Text.
Then right-align them and change the individual character colors.

Is that something you can work with?
***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP


"Patrick" wrote:

A new challenge for me!

I am entering different numbers in the same cell. I need the numbers to be
a different color. Is it possible to have Excel do this? I have tried
conditional formatting but I have a problem. If, for example, I want the
number 1 to be red it will be red if it is the ONLY number in the cell. As
soon as another number is entered, both are are the default color.

I am hoping I can do this without putting everything in it's own separate
cell.

Thanks in advance