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How to find and replace text then preserve formatting in Excel?

doc find replace preserve format 1
doc find replace preserve format 2
Find and Replace function is powerful and helpful when we need to find a specific value and replace it with another one. But if there is a range of cells, and some of the cells include different formatting values. In this case, to find and replace value by Find and Replace function will break the formatting of the values in cells as below screenshot shown, how can we preserve the formatting of values in each cell while finding and replacing in Excel?

Find and replace preserve formatting with Macro code

arrow blue right bubble Find and replace preserve formatting with Macro code

There is no other methods but macro code can help you to find and replace text and preserve formatting.

1. Press Alt + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Application window.

2. Click Insert > Module, and paste below code to the script.

VBA: Find and replace preserve formatting

Sub CharactersReplace(Rng As Range, FindText As String, ReplaceText As String, Optional MatchCase As Boolean = False)
  'UpdatebyExtendoffice20160711
    Dim I As Long
    Dim xLenFind As Long
    Dim xLenRep As Long
    Dim K As Long
    Dim xValue As String
    Dim M As Long
    Dim xCell As Range
    xLenFind = Len(FindText)
    xLenRep = Len(ReplaceText)
    If Not MatchCase Then M = 1
    For Each xCell In Rng
        If VarType(xCell) = vbString Then
            xValue = xCell.Value
            K = 0
            For I = 1 To Len(xValue)
              If StrComp(Mid$(xValue, I, xLenFind), FindText, M) = 0 Then
                xCell.Characters(I + K, xLenFind).Insert ReplaceText
                K = K + xLenRep - xLenFind
              End If
            Next
        End If
    Next
End Sub

Sub Test_CharactersReplace()
    Dim xRg As Range
    Dim xTxt As String
    Dim xCell As Range
    On Error Resume Next
    If ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.Count > 1 Then
      xTxt = ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.AddressLocal
    Else
      xTxt = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.AddressLocal
    End If
    Set xRg = Application.InputBox("Select a range:", "Kutools for Excel", xTxt, , , , , 8)
    If xRg Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
    Call CharactersReplace(xRg, "KK", "Kutools", True)
End Sub

 

doc find replace preserve format 5

3. Press F5 key, a dialog pops out for you to select a range to find and replace, see screenshot:
doc find replace preserve format 6

4. Click OK, and the specific string in the selected cell are replace with other and keep the formatting.
doc find replace preserve format 4

Tip: In the code,  KK is the string you want to find, and Kutools is the string you want to replace with, you can change them as you need.

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Comments (6)
Rated 5 out of 5 · 1 ratings
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thanks, it has worked wonders for me. I needed to replace a colon with a newline character, but all the text before the colon should stay bold caption, where the rest of it should be left in regular. It has worked and abridged my work today.
Though I didn't try with cells with more than 255 characters, as it seems to be an issue with other people commenting.
Rated 5 out of 5
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Can you clarify if there is a solution that works in cells with more than 255 characters, or is this a limitation of Excel? Does your add-in support cells with more than 255 characters that contain formatting?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Same Question as John Birk i need a workaround with Cells that have more then 255 signs.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
The method only work while characters less than 255 digits.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I am getting syntax error in VBA
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I tried your solution on a cell that is over 255 characters long and nothing changes. Is there a workaround for this case?
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