format painter

[Tom Whitmore]

Hi,

I hope the Excel mavens can help with this minor but galling problem. I
have Excel 2003 running on Windows 2000.

If I use the format painter to copy the format from cell 1 to cell 2
(e.g., change of font) it works as expected. But if I later want to alter
the format in cell 2 to boldusing the bold button, it does not alter the
format. The italic or underline buttons work as expected! But I can go to
the full format menu and use the font format setting (e.g., bold) and get
the cell 2 format changed to bold.

If I use the full format menu to format a cell I can use the bold button
to alter font characteristics (e.g., bold) - the bold button only fails to
work if I have formatted that cell with the format painter.

Is this a feature or a bug? How can I get it to work as I expect?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Tom

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Tom,

I've tried it here with Excel 2002, and it works as it should.

Have you tried clicking the Bold button more than once? Does it turn light,
then back to dark? Could the font in the cell be one that doesn't have a
bold format (a few don't)? See if you can change the bold format of cell 1.

 

[Tom Whitmore]

Dear Earl,

Thanks for the feedback - you helped me solve the problem. It is even
wierder than I thought, however. It is not the format painter after all.

I can have cells all with the same font (Arial narrow), all appear
"black". None will become bold if I click the B button but will do so if I
select bold from the font menu. The italic and underline buttons do work,
however.

Here is where it becomes odd, when I look at the font color menu even
though they look 'black' the "automatic" section is not selected indeed --
NO color is selected. If I select 'automatic' or any color then the bold
button works. And when I select bold from the font menu tab of the
formatting menu the font color automatically becomes "automatic".

These sheets/cells were exported from another non-spreadsheet program that
purported to save them as Excel. All appears OK but apparently none of the
cells was given a font color and without a font color bold does not work.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Tom,

If you see no color selection, one possibility is that you've selected
multiple cells, and they're not all the same color -- it shows you nothing.
If you've selected only one cell, I have no idea. Twilight zone.

I'd bet that there's some weirdness with the export from the other app. If
you continue to have trouble, pasting the stuff into a new Excel workbook
might (might) fix it (maybe). For the moment, it sounds as if you've gotten
your bold back. Press boldly on.

 

[Tom Whitmore]

Hi,

I appreciate your reply since it stimulated me to figure what was
happening. I can cope by selecting all the cells in the data sheets made
by the other app and "coloring" the text automatic or whatever. Then all
will work as I expect.

cheers,

Tom