Symbols & font

[Guest]

I inherited a worksheet that uses diamond & triangle symbols. These symbols
display in the cell AND formula bar as a diamond or triangle in Arial font
and both have code 63. I'd like to add a star (Wingdings 171), but my star
displays in the cell as a star, but as << in the formula bar. How can I get
the star to have the same properties as the diamond & triangle--that is
display as the star symbol in arial font?

 

[Dave Peterson]

Unless you change it, the font for the formula bar is Arial. So no matter what
the cell looks like on the worksheet, it'll appear as Arial in the formula bar.

And you got lucky that you were using Arial for both the triangle and the
diamond.

If you really want to see the star, then you could change that option to show
Wingdings in the formula bar (don't do it--you won't be able to read anything!)

Tools|Options|General Tab|Standard Font
(Restart excel--you'll be prompted)

If you do play with this, make a note of your original settings so you can
change them back easily!

 

[Guest]

The confusing thing is, in the Arial character map the diamond and triangle
do not exist. The Arial code for these two shapes (using =code(cell ref)) is
63 and it shows in the Arial map as a square without fill. Am I missing
something?

 

[Dave Peterson]

=code(cellref) returns the first character in the cell.

Chip Pearson has a nice addin that can help you determine each character in a
cell:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/CellView.htm

For me, I put =char(63) in a cell formatted as Arial and saw a question mark.

And are you using that unicode character set? (I don't know anything about
that.) Maybe someone who does will be able to help when you post back.

 

[Guest]

Dave,

Cellref was my attempt at a generic cell name, like A1. I agree with you
that using character code 63 in Arial font does not produce a diamond or
triangle. The diamond looks like Terminal font and the triangle like
Wingdings 3 or Terminal. Unfortunately, neither of these fonts also includes
a star. It seems like these characters are somehow storing the font within
the character; as if maintaining properties as I cut and paste. If this is
happening, I would love to know how, to use in this workbook as well as
others I have.

Thanks so much Dave for your response. I appreciate all the help you
provide to me and others (as I search past posts).

Regards,
JB

 

[Dave Peterson]

Maybe it's a mixture of fonts.

If you highlight just that single character in the formulabar, what does the
Font box show?

The font box seems to pick up its value from the font of first character in the
string.

Dave,

Cellref was my attempt at a generic cell name, like A1. I agree with you
that using character code 63 in Arial font does not produce a diamond or
triangle. The diamond looks like Terminal font and the triangle like
Wingdings 3 or Terminal. Unfortunately, neither of these fonts also includes
a star. It seems like these characters are somehow storing the font within
the character; as if maintaining properties as I cut and paste. If this is
happening, I would love to know how, to use in this workbook as well as
others I have.

Thanks so much Dave for your response. I appreciate all the help you
provide to me and others (as I search past posts).

Regards,
JB

 

[Dave Peterson]

And I bet if you really change the whole cell's font to Arial then your symbols
disappear.

Dave,

Cellref was my attempt at a generic cell name, like A1. I agree with you
that using character code 63 in Arial font does not produce a diamond or
triangle. The diamond looks like Terminal font and the triangle like
Wingdings 3 or Terminal. Unfortunately, neither of these fonts also includes
a star. It seems like these characters are somehow storing the font within
the character; as if maintaining properties as I cut and paste. If this is
happening, I would love to know how, to use in this workbook as well as
others I have.

Thanks so much Dave for your response. I appreciate all the help you
provide to me and others (as I search past posts).

Regards,
JB

 

[Piranha]

Hi,
I have the Diamond and the triangle ∆ ◊ in my Characte
map for Arial font in XPHome.
Thx
Dave

The confusing thing is, in the Arial character map the diamond an
triangle
do not exist. The Arial code for these two shapes (using =code(cel
ref)) is
63 and it shows in the Arial map as a square without fill. Am
missing
something?

 

[Dave Peterson]

Those look like Unicode characters to me.

In fact, I could do this to put them in a cell:

Option Explicit
Sub testme1()
Dim myCell As Range
Set myCell = ActiveSheet.Range("a1")
myCell.Value = ChrW(8710) & ChrW(9674)
End Sub

and this to examine each character:
Sub testme2()
Dim myCell As Range
Dim iCtr As Long

Set myCell = ActiveSheet.Range("a1")

For iCtr = 1 To Len(myCell.Value)
MsgBox AscW(Mid(myCell.Value, iCtr, 1))
Next iCtr
End Sub