Enforcing a Desired Font

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 29, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021


Bryan has an Excel workbook that is shared in his office. He created the workbook and set the default font, but someone is changing the font. Bryan wonders if he can force the font to his desired font when the workbook is closed.

An easy way to do this is to use the BeforeClose event handler for the workbook. You can have the handler step through each of the worksheets and set the font for all the cells in this manner:

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(Cancel As Boolean)
    Dim s As Worksheet

    For Each s In ActiveWorkbook.Sheets
        s.Cells.Font.Name = "Calibri"
    Next
End Sub

This sets the font to Calibri, but you can change the font name, as necessary. If you need to change other font characteristics, you can modify the event handler to do so:

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(Cancel As Boolean)
    Dim s As Worksheet

    For Each s In ActiveWorkbook.Sheets
        With s.Cells.Font
            .Name = "Calibri"
            .Size = 10
        End With
    Next
End Sub

You'll want to be careful, though, changing too many font characteristics, as you may end up getting rid of some you want to keep, such as bold or italic.

Remember that these macros should be added to the ThisWorkbook object in the Visual Basic Editor.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (4801) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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