Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Making a Cell's Contents Italics within a Macro.

Making a Cell's Contents Italics within a Macro

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 24, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


4

If you are writing macros using VBA, it is not uncommon to process data and place the results of your processing into cells in a worksheet. If desired, you can also make the results in an italics typeface so that they stand out. You do this by setting the Italic property of the Font object for a selection.

For instance, if you wanted to make the contents of cell A1 italics, you could use the following in your macro:

Cells(1, 1).Font.Italic = True

Likewise, if you wanted to make the currently selected cell italics, you could use the following code:

Selection.Font.Italic = True

If you wanted to explicitly turn off the italics attribute of a particular cell, all you need to do is change True to False in the foregoing examples.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9307) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Making a Cell's Contents Italics within a Macro.

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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What is five less than 9?

2025-03-27 14:22:24

Kiwerry

@ J. Woolley: Thanks for the tip about the SetChars function, I'll bear it in mind. My need is currently limited to adding a code fragment to highlight some characters in a cell into a loop which is currently handling that specific cell


2025-03-26 15:59:56

J. Woolley

My Excel Toolbox includes the following function to set font properties for a limited number of characters (Start, Count) in each cell of Target's range:
    =SetChars(Target, Start, Count,
        [Name], [Size], [Style], [Color], [Underline], [Strikethrough],
        [Superscript], [Subscript])
Target, Start, and Count are required; properties are optional and unchanged if not supplied. Only cells with a text constant are considered; others are ignored.
For example, to set the 4th and 5th characters of all cells in the range A1:A9 to size 14, bold, red font:
    =SetChars(A1:A9, 4, 2, , 14, "Bold", "Red"))
If successful, SetChars returns Null, which is evaluated as an empty string ("") in a text formula, zero (0) in a numeric formula, or FALSE in a Boolean formula.
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/


2025-03-24 06:22:33

Kiwerry

@Brian: Thanks for the additional info!


2025-03-24 05:50:31

Brian

This can be extended to change part of the format of a cell contents. For example the make a date have superscript after the date (perhaps 24th)

Cells(1, 1).Characters(Start:=3, Length:=2).Font.Superscript = true

Clearly it need another to determine if the date is < 10.

This work for most (perhaps all) font styles - name, size, bold, colors, italics, underline, sub and superscript.

For example:

Cells(1, 1).Characters(Start:=1, Length:=2).Font.Name = "Arial"
Cells(1, 1).Characters(Start:=5, Length:=5).Font.Superscript = True
Cells(1, 1).Characters(Start:=8, Length:=3).Font.ColorIndex = 3
Cells(1, 1).Characters(Start:=12, Length:=3).Font.Underline = xlUnderlineStyleSingle


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