Tom Ogilvy or anyone that can help

[Brian W.]

Hi Tom,

It's Brian again from the posts about making something bold
if I type an X somewhere else.

Maybe I'm asking the wrong thing-

What I want is some kind of Nested IF function that says If
this cell contains the letter X then BOLD the text in
another cell.
The cells in question will be in 2 different workbooks.

I won't bother you anymore after this.

Thanks
Brian

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

I gave up. Perhaps someone else can help.

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
just to add to Tom:
- first: always best to stay in the original thread:
- it is of course easy to mechanically link two different cells and
bold one of these cells (e.g. using a conditional format with a defined
name in combination)

BUT: This is probably not what you want and I can fully understand Tom
why he is not able to offer a solution (I can't either...). What you
have to tell us is the LOGIC how these cells should be linkes. To give
you an example:
- lets say cell B2 on your second sheet contains an 'X'
- now you want to bold one cell on sheet 1

HOW do you determine WHICH cell to bold. How are these cells linkes or
how do they correspond with each other (this is what Tom meant with
'matching' - at least I hope he meant this). Excel (we) have to know
the algorithmn behing your bolding)

 

[Myrna Larson]

First of all, IF statement cannot change formatting, period. You could use
conditional formatting if the cell to be tested is on the same worksheet, in
the same workbook. AFAIK, it can't check the value of a cell in another
workbook.

You would have to write a VBA macro to change formatting in this way. And it
won't be dynamic unless you use a Event macro in the workbook where you are
entering the X

 

[Guest]

Thanks Frank.

No wonder why nobody could answer my question. Now that I'm
thinking about it more I'm not even sure if what I'm try to
do is possible.

I didn't specify before that the formula would be in the
cell that I want to bold not in the cell that I'm putting
the X in. But that leads to another problem becuase I
already have a formula in that cell. Can you have more then
1 formula in a cell? I know you can do multiple conditional
formating but that won't work across workbooks.

I'll have to rework the format to make it all work.

Thanks
Brian

 

[Dave Peterson]

maybe you could use a helper cell and just return the value in that cell--then
refer to that helper cell in your conditional formatting formula.

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

Conditional formatting can be done across worksheets in the same workbook
and across workbooks if both are open. It requires that the reference to
the trigger cell (cell with the X) be put in a defined name
(insert=>Name=>Define). Worst case, you would need one for each cell that
is to be formatted. However, there is a positional correspondence between
the two, it is possible it could be done with a minimal number of defined
names.

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

AFAIK, it can't check the value of a cell in another

workbook.

Worked fine for me in another workbook if I created a reference to the other
workbook in a defined name defined in the workbook with the formatting and
both workbooks were open.

xl97 SR2.