How to design colorful cell contents in Excel

If you need to design a colorful title or banner or something similar, so that every character or group of characters or digits has a distinct color, then you can find this post helpful. Here are just two simple examples of effects you can achieve:

You can easily produce such effects quickly by entering your text (including also digits) in any cell of your worksheet, selecting the cell, and running the macro listed below. Just remember that if your cell contains just a number it must be formatted as text for this purpose.

The macro can be entered/copied into any VBA module of your workbook. Obviously, it can be modified as needed for your specific needs. Enjoy!

Sub clrFonts()
'Colors every character within a string of selected cell
Dim cnt As String
Dim rng As Range
Dim n As Long
Set rng = ActiveCell
For n = 1 To Len(rng.Value)
    cnt = Mid(rng.Value, n, 1)
    If cnt = "a" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 255): GoTo cont 'blue
    If cnt = "b" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 255, 0): GoTo cont 'green
    If cnt = "c" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(255, 0, 0): GoTo cont 'red
    If cnt = "d" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 255): GoTo cont 'blue
    If cnt = "e" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(153, 51, 0): GoTo cont 'brownish
    If cnt = "f" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(255, 0, 255): GoTo cont 'd red
    If cnt = "g" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 255, 255): GoTo cont 'green blue
    If cnt = "h" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(128, 0, 0): GoTo cont 'brown
    If cnt = "i" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 128, 0): GoTo cont 'vd green
    If cnt = "j" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 128): GoTo cont 'd blue
    If cnt = "k" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(128, 128, 0): GoTo cont 'd grey
    If cnt = "l" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(128, 0, 128): GoTo cont 'vd brown
    If cnt = "m" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(192, 192, 192): GoTo cont 'l grey
    If cnt = "n" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(128, 128, 128): GoTo cont 'l green
    If cnt = "o" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(153, 153, 255): GoTo cont 'l blue
    If cnt = "p" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(153, 51, 102): GoTo cont 'vvd brown
    If cnt = "q" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(255, 255, 204): GoTo cont 'vl yellow
    If cnt = "r" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(51, 153, 102): GoTo cont 'green blue
    If cnt = "s" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(102, 0, 102): GoTo cont 'vvvd brown
    If cnt = "t" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(255, 128, 128): GoTo cont 'd orange
    If cnt = "u" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 102, 204): GoTo cont 'vdd green
    If cnt = "v" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(204, 204, 255): GoTo cont 'dd grey
    If cnt = "w" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 128): GoTo cont 'vvd blue
    If cnt = "x" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(204, 153, 255): GoTo cont 'violet
    If cnt = "y" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(51, 102, 255): GoTo cont 'md blue
    If cnt = "z" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(102, 102, 153): GoTo cont 'greenish
    If cnt = "0" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 0): GoTo cont 'black
    If cnt = "1" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 255, 0): GoTo cont 'green
    If cnt = "2" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(255, 0, 0): GoTo cont 'red
    If cnt = "3" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 255): GoTo cont 'blue
    If cnt = "4" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 255, 255): GoTo cont 'l blue
    If cnt = "5" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(102, 0, 150): GoTo cont '???
    If cnt = "6" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(128, 128, 0): GoTo cont 'greenish
    If cnt = "7" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(128, 0, 128): GoTo cont 'd brown
    If cnt = "8" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 128, 128): GoTo cont 'd green
    If cnt = "9" Then rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(255, 153, 204): GoTo cont 'rouge
    If cnt Like "[A-Z]" Then
        rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(255, 0, 255)  'dark red
    ElseIf cnt <> " " Then
        rng.Characters(n, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 0)  'black
    End If
cont:
Next n
End Sub

 

CELLS: Blank, Empty, Space, Zero

Back to basics... 

What's the meaning of all these basic terms in Excel?

BLANK cell: empty or not? Not quite, may contain "" (zero length text string)

EMPTY cell: nothing is there (no text string, no zero); always evaluates to zero

Cell with SPACE: contains 'space' character (=" ")

Do you know that: 

Complex Array formula

An array is a row or column of values, or a combination of them. Array formulas can be very useful in many applications where normal Excel formulas don't work. An array formula is a formula that can perform multiple calculations on one or more items in an array.

Array formulas can return either multiple results, or a single result. We can use array formulas to perform complex tasks, such as:

• create quickly sample datasets
• count some values contained in a range of cells
• sum numbers that meet certain conditions, such as the lowest values in a range
  
• sum every Nth value in a range of cells
• find specific values in a cell or a range of cells
• etc.   
  

The following example shows you how the single-cell array formula can find the last filled cell in a given row and show its value. Here is the formula (all entered in a single cell):

Pull number from alphanumeric string in a Cell

Sometimes you may need to pull the numbers from alphanumeric strings in your worksheet cells.  The user defined function (UDF), I’m presenting here, separates numbers from a cell containing numbers and text characters. The referenced cell can contain any string, including spaces, decimal points or negative numbers.

Function PullNum(rng As Range, _
     Optional Point As Boolean, Optional Negat As Boolean) As Double
'Pulls a number from a cell containing alphanumerics
'e.g. =PullNum(A1,,TRUE) pulls negative number
    Dim cnt As Integer, i As Integer, sLen As Integer
    Dim sTxt As String, sMinus As String, sDP As String, sN As String
    Dim sV As Variant
    sTxt = rng
    If Point = True And Negat = True Then
        sMinus = "-": sDP = "."
    ElseIf Point = True And Negat = False Then
        sMinus = vbNullString: sDP = "."
    ElseIf Point = False And Negat = True Then
        sMinus = "-": sDP = vbNullString
    End If
    sLen = Len(sTxt)
    For cnt = sLen To 1 Step -1
    sV = Mid(sTxt, cnt, 1)
        If IsNumeric(sV) Or sV = sMinus Or sV = sDP Then
            i = i + 1
            sN = Mid(sTxt, cnt, 1) & sN
                If IsNumeric(sN) Then
                    If CDbl(sN) < 0 Then Exit For
                Else
                  sN = Replace(sN, Left(sN, 1), "", , 1)
                End If
        End If
    If i = 1 And sN <> vbNullString Then sN = CDbl(Mid(sN, 1, 1))
    Next cnt
    PullNum = CDbl(sN)
End Function

To use the function, copy its code to any of the Modules in your workbook (add a Module, if not included yet in the workbook). The function can be used in several formats, depending on your optional needs, e.g.:

=pullnum(A1)
=pullnum(A1,TRUE)
=pullnum(A1,TRUE,TRUE)
=pullnum(A1,,TRUE)
=pullnum(A1,FALSE,TRUE)

Here are some examples of output obtained with the function: