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How is it possible to enable "rich text formatting" inside a single Google Sheets cell?

I'd like to have a cell containing some text with both bold and non-bold content, words in italic, with some hypertext links, etc.

How to do this with Google Sheets?


Example: When I copy paste:

This is a test. This text is bold or italic.

into a Google Sheets cell, the formmating is lost: only italic is kept but for the whole cell.

As a comparison, when I copy/paste it into an Excel cell, the formatting is ok:

enter image description here

1 Answer 1

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Rich-Text formatting is not an OPT in/out / turn on/off feature. It's always turned on. To use it:

  1. Put the cell in edit mode
  2. Type the text
  3. Select the text part to apply bold, italics, color
  4. Apply the desired format by using the Google Sheets toolbar or keyboard-shortcuts like Ctrl+b for bold, Ctrl+i for italics, Ctrl+k to insert a link, etc.
  5. Put the cell in display mode (press Enter, click the Tab, etc.)

Notes:

  1. If copy-paste is not working and you aren't using Chrome it's very likely that format that is failing is an unsupported feature for the Operative System / web browser that you are using, if it's not working in Chrome stable channel, the it's very likely that it's a bug.
  2. In Google Sheets cells, the Rich-Text formatting options are limited, no in-in-line hyperlinks, no in-line images.

Related

Resources

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  • It seems that you can't put a link example.com to a specific part of a cell, it's only for the whole cell, do you confirm?
    – Basj
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 14:48
  • Also can we insert images in the middle of the text (rich HTML content)? I don't think so, I think that image is either over cells, or in cell (but then it uses the full cell)
    – Basj
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 14:49
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    You can now make PARTS of a cell's text into a hyperlink - just select the text and hit Ctrl-K.
    – RashaMatt
    Commented Jan 11, 2021 at 22:34
  • @Basj Answer updated Commented Jan 11, 2021 at 22:49
  • @RashaMatt Thanks :) Commented Jan 11, 2021 at 22:49

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