December 2021 – LearnYouAndMe

Sometimes you need to filter cells with bold text in Excel.

But, in Excel, there is no direct way to do this. In this article, you will learn how to filter cells by bold characters in Excel.

Filter cells with bold font formatting using IsBold function

In the below image you can see in the product column some of the cells formatted bold.

If you apply filter and search option filter by bold then there is no such option.

I will solve this issue using the custom function or UDF named IsBold.

IsBold function returns True when a cell has bold format and False when the cell is not bold.

excel filter cells with bold text

In the blank column write Isbold function (In the below pic E column).

Cell E2 formula =IsBold(C2)

In the above formula check whether cells of the product column have bold format or not.

In the below image you can see True is outputted for the product cell having bold text.

IsBold function in Excel

Now, apply the filter on table and filter True value from the IsBold column (column E).

In the below image you can see all the cells in the “C” column with bold format got filtered.

Attention:- This UDF formula will not re-calculate automatically if the cell format is changed after applying the formula.

Example – If you make cell C4 unbold then Isbold output will not change from True to False automatically, to update to correct output re-write the formula and copy-paste it over a range.

VBA to filter bold text in Excel

Creating IsBold UDF function in Excel

IsBold is not an inbuilt Excel function. You need to create this function using VBA.

To create this function press ALT+F11 to open VBA IDE.

In VBA IDE insert a new standard module.

creating standard module in VBA IDE

In the newly created module copy paste the below code. Save as file either in Macro format (.xlsm) or in Binary format (.xlsb).

Function IsBold(rng As Range) As Boolean
  IsBold = False
  Dim cel As Range
  For Each cel In rng
    If cel.Font.Bold Then
     IsBold = True
     Exit Function
    End If
  Next
End Function

Adding or creating Isbold function in Excel