Format text in form controls

[davenik]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel Is there a way to format the text and color of a Label (form control) or Group Box (form control)?

Can't seem to find anything that will do it.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Jim Gordon Mac MVP]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor:
Intel Is there a way to format the text and color of a Label (form
control) or Group Box (form control)?

Can't seem to find anything that will do it.

Thanks,

Dave

Hi Dave,

If you use the Forms toolbar (View > Toolbars > Forms) and add controls
to a worksheet, you can format those controls.

Select the form so that you can see it's border (the re-size handles
will be visible). Next, right-click or control-click on the border. A
pop-up menu will appear. Choose Format Control.

-Jim

 

[davenik]

Jim,

I did look at the Format Control dialog box. It has 4 modes: Size, Protection, Properties, and Control. None of these allow me to format the text or color of the control, though.

Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[CyberTaz]

Yeah, I'd like to hear more on this too, Dave I've never been able to
find a way, myself. The Format Properties vary depending on the type of
control. Some offer a Colors & Lines page (such as Option Buttons) but
nothing I've seen provides any font formatting.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
Is there a way to format the text and color of a Label (form control) or Group
Box (form control)?

Can't seem to find anything that will do it.

Thanks,

Dave

Nope. Does not seem to be a way to format either of those controls.

 

[davenik]

Thanks for the corroboration.

I wound up using pull down menus (MS calls them Combo Boxes). I tried several times to adjust their heights so that they were all the same. No matter what I do, they say they are 0.26" high - but they are most definitely not all the same height. I was, however, able to format their width.

Instead of using a group box control I put rounded rectangle shape objects behind the pull down menus. I was able to color these according a Document Theme palette. Further in the document I had some cells for input that I wanted to color exactly the same. But, you can only format the color of cells from the standard color palette (not the Document Theme), *and* no matter what I did, I couldn't get the color chooser (eyedropper) to activate.

The end result is decent, but not what I was aiming for. If you have any tips on how to at least match the colors, I'd appreciate it.

The end result is here: http://www.sputnik.com/support/deployment_tools/assets/sputnik_range_estimator.xls

Thanks for your time and help.

Best,

Dave

 

[Jim Gordon Mac MVP]

Ooops! My apologies. I only posted part of the answer.

OK. Let me start over and I'll give you the complete answer, as I left
out the most important parts.

Let's start with what I posted already:

If you use the Forms toolbar (View > Toolbars > Forms) and add

controls to a worksheet, you can format those controls.

Select the form so that you can see it's border (the re-size handles

will be visible). Next, right-click or control-click on the border. A
pop-up menu will appear. Choose Format Control.

When the Format Control dialog opens, on the Colors and Lines tab adjust
the Fill Color to No Fill. The adjust the line color to No Line, and
then click OK to close the dialog box.

Drag over any text in the control and delete the text.

What you have left is just a form control, which you can position
anywhere you like. I position the control next to a cell that has the
text that I want to display. You can format the text in the cell any way
you like, and it looks like it's part of the form control, but it really
isn't. I use this trick all the time. in the cell next to the control,
usually I have an IF formula that's based upon whether or not the form
control's associated cell value is TRUE or FALSE.

So, although it's true that you can't adjust the font formatting within
the form control itself, it doesn't matter. You can easily "fake it."

-Jim