Rich Text Formatting Is Lost When You Use Replace All

If you use the commands in the Replace dialog box to find and replace text in a worksheet, some cells may lose their text formatting.

This problem occurs if the following conditions are true:

• On the Edit menu, you click Replace. In the Replace dialog box, you type text in the Find What and Replace With boxes, and then click Replace All. -and-
  
  
• Some of the cells in the worksheet use rich text formatting, which is a combination of font, font size, font style (for example, bold or italic) and underlining formatting.
  
  -and-
• You replace text in a cell that uses rich text formatting.

If you click Replace All, you cannot prevent Microsoft Excel from removing rich text formatting from cells in which you replace text.

You can, however, use Find Next to find each cell that contains the text you specify in the Find What box. When Excel finds the cell, click Replace to replace the text in only that cell. If Excel finds a cell that uses rich text formatting, click Close, manually edit the cell, and then click Replace on the Edit menu to resume the process.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

How to Apply Rich Text Formatting to a Cell in Microsoft Excel

1. Select the cell and start editing the cell, by double-clicking the cell or by clicking the formula bar.
2. Select the text that you want to format. On the Format menu, click Cells.
3. Click the Font tab, and then change the font.
   
   For example, make the font bold or increase its size.
4. Click OK, and then press ENTER or RETURN (on a Macintosh computer) to enter the changes.

You can also select the text in the cell and use the tools on the Formatting toolbar to apply different fonts, font sizes, and so on, to the selected text.