é is not really a "foreign" character.

You say "standard characters that aren't A-Z, a-z, 0-9"

What about other standard chars like , . ? " ' ( ) $ % @ * /

In a blank sheet in A1 enter =CHAR(ROW()) and copy down to A255 and see the
characters produced.

Which of those characters would you consider as "foreign"?

Perhaps we can narrow it down to a series like char(192) through char(255)


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP


Taking you literally.....use this macro but you will get many hits that are
not "foreign" characters.

On Thu, 4 Feb 2010 06:01:01 -0800, Gareth_Evans (InterCall EMEA)
m wrote:

Hi there, I have a spreadsheet containing first & last names (columns A & B),
up to 10,000 rows and some of the names contain 'foreign' characters - such
as é.

I would like to be able to hightlight all cells that contain a non-standard
character (ie: A-Z, a-z, 0-9) which will allow our admin team to eailly
filter and correct before the data is loaded into the system.

I've been trying to create a macro for this but I can't seem to get a
formula together to include for all the possible special characters.

I'm ok with excel but by no means a whizz, if anyone can offer any advice I
would be most grateful.

Best regards,

Gareth