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[Solved] Conditional formatting for text

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 6:59 pm
by chetan3125
Hi guys,
I am stuck on a small problem.
I have to fill the cell color red if the cell contains specific text through conditional formatting in calc.
eg. if cell contains text "leave" the cell should have red fill
(also if the cell contains "half day leave" or "full day leave" the cell should have red fill (basically even if the cell contains the word leave with many other words it should have red fill)
Is it possible in calc?
This is same like the function of "text contains" in excel conditional formatting.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Re: conditional formatting for text

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 7:16 pm
by mriosv
In conditional formatting, change "Field value is" to "Formula is", and use a formula like:
FIND("leave";A1;1) or
SEARCH("leave";A1;1)
the difference is SEARCH() support regular expressions, which lets make complex search expressions.

Re: conditional formatting for text

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 7:48 pm
by chetan3125
mriosv wrote:In conditional formatting, change "Field value is" to "Formula is", and use a formula like:
FIND("leave";A1;1) or
SEARCH("leave";A1;1)
the difference is SEARCH() support regular expressions, which lets make complex search expressions.

Thanks a lot mriosv
This solved my problem.
:bravo: :bravo: :bravo:
Just one small question-
If I apply this conditional formatting (yellow fill) in column J and suppose if cell J1 contains word "leave",
Is it possible to apply same formatting (yellow fill) in cell A1 to J1 (a part of row) if J1 contains word "leave"
Thanks !

Re: Conditional formatting for text

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 8:27 pm
by gerard24
mriosv wrote:the difference is SEARCH() support regular expressions, which lets make complex search expressions.
An other difference between FIND and SEARCH : FIND is case sensitive, SEARCH not.
chetan3125 wrote:Is it possible to apply same formatting (yellow fill) in cell A1 to J1 (a part of row) if J1 contains word "leave"
Used mixed reference :
Select cells A1 to J1 and apply conditional formatting SEARCH("leave";$J1;1)

Re: Conditional formatting for text

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 6:49 pm
by Tiger-Heli
LibreOffice 3.5.4.2 - WinXP

I'm trying to do something similar and not having much luck.

Basically, I want a cell to have green text if it has the value "Yes" and red text if it has the value "No". (And "Yes-other text" should not be changed).

I set up styles named Red and Green.

Then I selected all cells and went to Conditional Formatting under Format.

Initially, I set Condition 1 to Cell Value Equals 'Yes' and set Style to Green, and Condition 2 Cell Value Equals 'No" and Set Style to Red.
Based on this thread, I tried setting Condition 1 to Formula and "FIND("Yes",A1,1)", and then "SEARCH("Yes",A1,1)", but neither one worked for me.

Thanks!!!

Re: [Solved] Conditional formatting for text

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 7:33 pm
by Villeroy
Tiger-Heli wrote: Initially, I set Condition 1 to Cell Value Equals 'Yes'
"Yes", it's a formula expression which requires constant text in double-quotes.

Re: [Solved] Conditional formatting for text

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 7:48 pm
by Tiger-Heli
Awesome - Cell Value equals "Yes" worked fine. Formula equals Search or Find did not work, but "Yes" did what I was looking for.

Thank you!!!

Re: [Solved] Conditional formatting for text

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 8:00 pm
by Villeroy
Test any formula expressions in cells before you use them in conditional formats.
FIND("Yes";A1;1) returns error #VALUE! if "Yes" is not in A1.
ISNUMBER(FIND("Yes";A1;1)) should work.
ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Yes";A1;1)) is case-insensitive.

Re: [Solved] Conditional formatting for text

Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 7:18 pm
by michael1313b
Hi,
New here but been using your suggestions without an account for years and they've all worked flawlessly until this one so I never needed to post.

Ok, I am having the exact same issue as the thread was originally posted for. I want to have conditional formatting for a column (say column a) that will highlight every cell in that column that contains a word (say heirloom) with a specific color (say yellow). I want it to work even it the cell contains other words. So if a sell contains "heirloom seeds" or "heirloom veggies" both would highlight under the same conditional formatting rule for the word "heirloom".

I have tried the above method every way I can think of and I simply cannot get it to work.

I've even tried what's mentioned at this thread: viewtopic.php?t=30992 and it's not working for me at all. With this one I replicated the exact page that was offered as an attachment by acknak, using the exact same word criteria even. Just copy and pasted the whole thing, even named my conditional formatting rule "_highlight" just like his page, and nothing seems to be working. Almost like I have something overriding it but I'm trying a new sheet each time.

I have a feeling I'm missing something very simple, like a bracket or quotation or maybe I'm defining my cell area wrong or something. Or maybe the 4.1.7 version is different for this, though that makes no sense to me either.

Anyway, I'm fed up trying to figure out what going wrong on my own so now I'm looking for help.

So if anyone can help me, maybe with a total noob brake down of this, I will pay you $1,000,000!
Ok, no I won't, I'll likely just thank you with capital letters an explanation points or an emoji or two.

Re: [Solved] Conditional formatting for text

Posted: Sat May 08, 2021 5:56 pm
by Villeroy
The attachment from acknak in the topic you linked works fine.

Re: [Solved] Conditional formatting for text

Posted: Sun May 09, 2021 3:48 pm
by Villeroy
michael1313b wrote:Just copy and pasted the whole thing, even named my conditional formatting rule "_highlight" just like his page, and nothing seems to be working.
The name "_highlight" is not the name of a rule. It is the name of a cell style. That's all I can tell without seeing any document from your side.
http://www.openoffice.org/documentation ... c4_EN.html