Ever need to extract just the bold portion of some cells automatically? You can use my getBoldText VBA custom function to do that. This function takes a cell and returns the bold portion if any. See these sample results:
Using Custom Functions in Excel
To extract the bold text from cells, we are going to use User Defined Function (UDF) feature of Excel.
This feature let’s us build custom functionality that is not part of Excel.
- Step 1: Go to Visual Basic Editor (Press ALT+F11 or click on Developer Ribbon > Visual Basic)
- Step 2: Right on your workbook in the left-hand panel and insert a new module (refer to below illustration).
Add the getBoldText() Code to your workbook
In the module, copy paste below code.
Function getBoldText(fromthis As Range) As String
Dim i As Integer, size As Integer
Dim output As String
size = fromthis.Characters.Count
If fromthis.Font.FontStyle Like "Bold*" Then
output = fromthis.Value
Else
For i = 1 To size
If fromthis.Characters(i, 1).Font.FontStyle Like "Bold*" Then
output = output & fromthis.Characters(i, 1).Caption
End If
Next i
End If
getBoldText = output
End Function
Save your workbook (as .XLSM file).
Now, you can use =getBoldText() function in your file to extract the bold values from any cell contents.
How to use this function?
Save your workbook (as .XLSM file).
Now, you can use =getBoldText() function in your file to extract the bold values from any cell contents.
The syntax is:
=getBoldText(cell_address)
See this quick demo to understand how to use the function.
How to install this function so it works in all files?
You can also install this function using your personal macros workbook.
Follow below process:
- Click on “Excel Add-ins” button in either Developer Ribbon or Options > Add-ins > Excel Add-ins > Go
- Enable “Personal” macro workbook. This is a macro file that let’s you store reusable macros & custom functions like getBoldText.
- Now go to Visual Basic Editor (ALT+F11) and locate the personal macro file. It would be named personal.xlam
- Expand the file and add a module if necessary.
- Copy paste the VBA code for getBoldText into this module.
- Save and restart Excel.
- Now, you should be able to use the getBoldText across any of your workbooks (on your computer).
Known issues and bugs
In my preliminary testing this function worked fine in Excel 365. I have not tested it in older versions of Excel like 2013 or 2010. If you notice any bugs or issues please report using the comments feature on this page.
More VBA Examples
Check out below VBA / Automation examples to simplify your work:
8 Responses to “Top 5 keyboard shortcuts for Excel Charts”
As far as I remember (checked, again, 2 minutes ago) in my "Excel 2013" in order to select various chart elements I need to use the Arrow keys and not the TAB key.
Practically, the TAB key does nothing (within a Chart).
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Michael (Micky) Avidan
Thanks for pointing this out. This is how I remember it too, but when I was recording the video yesterday, only TAB key worked. MS must have changed the keys in Excel 2016. I have edited the post to include both keys.
The key navigation on charts is different in 2016.
TAB cycles through a layer of objects (SHIFT+TAB cycles backwards)
ENTER move down a layer
ESC moves up a layer
So on a column chart with title/legend/data labels if you select the plotarea the TAB will go through Title > Legend > Plotarea.
ENTER at plotarea will then select Vertical axis. Tab will take you through
Horizontal axis > gridlines > Series > Horizontal Axis.
ENTER with series selected will then allow you to TAB through individual data points and data labels.
If you ENTER on datalabels you can TAB through each data label.
ALT + F1 : to create default chart
ALT+E S T = CTRL + ALT + V, T : I find that easier to remember
I second what Michael already said about TAB and arrow keys. I can't help but think if this is related to the "," or ";" as separator. I prefer to use the chart tools - layout- drop down box, anyway.
Got to be F11 for instant charting. Highlight your data , hit F11 and voila! ?
Ctrl+1 is the most important chart shortcut. In fact, it works for any Excel object: whatever is selected, Ctrl+1 opens the task pane or dialog to format that object.
Somewhere along the line, maybe when Excel 2016 came out, the arrow keys stopped working to cycle through the elements of a chart. But what works is holding Ctrl while clicking the arrow keys. I haven't gotten used to the Tab and other keys, but as long as Ctrl+Arrow works, I'm good.
And F4 used to be so helpful when formatting a lot of charts. But since Excel 2007 came out, it has been mostly useless. It used to remember a whole set of changes at once, so I get that the newer modeless dialogs make that impractical. But now it only seems to work with formatting of lines and borders, and maybe fills. I find myself writing a lot of VBA one-liners in the Immediate Window to handle these tedious formatting tasks.
after clicking on a chart, is there a shortcut key to copy it?
Thank you for the Alt E S T - tip. This is more than a time saver. Because of dynamic charts or de-activated external references to data when you make the charts, you often have empty charts that are otherwise impossible to format. So this shortcut helps adressing that. I will work with it more and see if there remain some obstacles.