In Cell Text Formats – 2 Quick Tips

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Did you know you can apply any text effect to a single character or group of text characters within a cell ?

How?

Select the cell

Enter Edit Mode by pressing F2

Move to the characters you want to edit,

Hint 1: Use Ctrl and the Left/Right Arrows to jump words left and right

Hint 2: Use Ctrl Home/End to Jump to the Start /End of the cells text

Select the text with Shift and Left/Right Arrows

Hint 3: Use Ctrl Shift and the Left/Right Arrows to Jump over and select words left and right

Apply the format, see below for a list of available formats

You can then move to other characters and edit them as appropriate.

Here is a quick demo:

 

 

Did you know you can apply any text effect to text as you enter it?

How?

As you are typing some text try the following

Enter some text, as you are typing apply Bold (Ctrl B), Italic (Ctrl I), Underline (Ctrl U) to toggle the effects on,

Hint 4: Use the keyboard shortcuts,  Bold (Ctrl B), Italic (Ctrl I), Underline (Ctrl U) again to toggle the effect on/off as required

You can also apply color /font by using the appropriate menu drop down or Ctrl 1, Format Cells

Once again apply a format continue to type the text, apply/change formats as you go

Here is another quick demo:

 

 

What Formats are available

There are many Text formats that are available:

Bold – Ctrl B

Underline – Ctrl U

Double Underline – Ctrl 1 menu

Italic – Ctrl I

Font Color – Color Picker or Ctrl 1 menu

Font Size – Font Size Picker or Ctrl 1 menu

Super Script – Ctrl 1 menu

Sub Script – Ctrl 1 menu

Strikethrough – Ctrl 1 menu

Alt Enter – Add a second Line of text

 

Uses

There are many times where the use of in-cell text formatting is required

  • Highlighting Individual Characters or Words
  • Adding Footnote and other references
  • Writing Chemical Formulas
  • Writing Mathematical Formulas

 

Limitations

There are a few limitations to what and when in-cell formatting can be applied

  • The limitations of these techniques is that it cannot be applied to characters of a cell where the cell is a formula
  • The formats can’t be applied selectively by Conditional Formatting
  • The Cells background color applies to the whole cell and cannot be changed for part of the cell or on a character by Character basis
  • The Copy Cell Format tool does not copy in-cell text formats 🙁

 

Uses

When have you used in-cell text formats to great effect ?

Let us know in the comments below.

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15 Responses to “Christmas Gift List – Set your budget and track gifts using Excel”

  1. [...] Christmas Gift List – Set your budget and track gifts using Excel … [...]

  2. JP says:

    I'm confused: if you spend $10, and your budget is $40, shouldn't the amount in the "Within Budget?" column stay black, since you didn't go over budget?

    In other words, since we overspent on the electronic photo frame, shouldn't the $8 cell turn red?

  3. Chandoo says:

    @JP.. maybe Steven is encouraging consumerism... ?

    I havent realized it earlier, but now I see it. If you unprotect the sheet, you can change the formula in Column I to =IF(G13=0;" ";F13-G13) from =IF(G13=0;" ";G13-F13), that should correct the behavior.

  4. JP says:

    Thanks Chandoo. I thought of making a shopping list spreadsheet for Christmas, but this is neat so I think I'll use this instead.

  5. chrisham says:

    Chandoo & Steven thanks for this spreadsheet. But for the sake of a person who has been staring at this megaformula in vain for the last 40 mins and not afraid to ask, would it be possible for you to walk us through the logic used here?

    =SUM(SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($K$13:$K$62,ROW($K$13:$K$62)-MIN(ROW($K$13:$K$62)),0,1)),--($K$13:$K$62="-"))+SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($K$13:$K$62,ROW($K$13:$K$62)-MIN(ROW($K$13:$K$62)),0,1)),--($K$13:$K$62="0")))&" / "&SUBTOTAL(2,$G$13:$G$62)

  6. Tea Bag.. says:

    Thanks Chandoo.. This is one of the best budget spreadsheets I've ever seen.. The Arrays are out of this world!! And it's FREE!!
    Chandoo, can you tell us more about Steven? Does he have his own site?

  7. Steven says:

    JP, I think Chandoo changed it when he changed the currency formatting from £ to $, a negative figure is a good thing in this case. But don't change the formulas, the overbudget and under budget won't work properly if you do. Also Chandoo I think you've accidentally broke the conditional formatting for the alternating row colouring the formula is different to the version I sent you. As for the megaformula chrisham, it gave me a headache trying to get it all working, so I will let Chandoo talk you through it.

  8. savithri says:

    Hi,
    In cells I6 and I7, I understand that subtotal together with offset function returns an array of ones after which, the sumproduct function gives the desired result.
    But I’m not able to figure out the reason for using an array in I8 to return the most expensive gift.
    Can’t the formula be just
    “=VLOOKUP(SUBTOTAL(4,$G$13:$G$62),$G$13:$J$62,4,0)”

  9. Steven says:

    Savithri, Cell I8 needs the array, if the formula was “=VLOOKUP(SUBTOTAL(4,$G$13:$G$62),$G$13:$J$62,4,0)” it would find the highest price from the filtered range (i.e. highest actual in filtered range is $50) BUT then return the first person with that actual, not looking in just the filtered range (so first person on the list with a $50 actual.)
    To see what I mean, change the formula, then change all the actuals to $50 then filter for baby, it lists the first name on the list.
    But a good question 🙂

  10. savithri says:

    Thank you. I now realise that the array is used to get the ‘filtered range’ instead of the entire range, as table array for look up value.

  11. AprMarie7 says:

    this looks like an awesome excel sheet!! is there anyway i can get it emailed to me unprotected? for some reason, i am unable to download it 🙁 help!!

  12. Danny says:

    Hi I also can not download to a mac as the sheet is protected any help would be great

  13. [...] to send her a pricey present. Rather, send a card with a picture of your child. Here’s a cool Excel sheet that will help you estimate your budget per person and let you track [...]

  14. [...] husband and I pour/poor over the Christmas spreadsheet (yes, I do know how dorky that sounds, but we’re not the only ones!), figuring out who should give what to whom. We live at a distance from most of our family, so it [...]

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