Conditional Formatting

[waynerenaud]

Hopefully this is a quick and easy question.
Using conditional formatting, how do you use wildcards.
ie: if i want to apply a format if cell A1 contains "pen" i can use =$A1="pen" which works if the cell content is "pen" but wont work if the content is "open" or "pentagon" i have tried using wildcards
ie: =$A1="*pen*" and also tried =$A1=*"pen"* but they dont work. There must be a way of using wildcards in conditional formats. Please Help.

 

[sfvb]

Using the example you gave, lets say the word pentagon is in cell A1.

Instead of using the default

Cell Value Is

, use

Formula Is

and use the FIND function for the conditional format formula.

=FIND("pen",A1)

This will format the cell the way you want for pentagon, but not Pentagon
If you want the condition to be case insensitive use the SEARCH function instead:

=SEARCH("pen",A1)

 

[waynerenaud]

Many Thanks sfvb the search option works a treat