Copy cell formatting using Lookup formulae google spreadsheet

0
votes

I am making a spreadsheet for my D&D game in google spreadsheets, and am having some trouble with a vertical lookup. I have the workspace set up such that the first sheet is a search sheet, and the second is a database sheet.

In the search sheet, you type in the name of a spell, and then using VLOOKUP formulae it retrieves the data from the database. That does work. However, it does not copy over the formatting.

One of the pieces of information copied over is the spell description. Inside this description, which is fitted all in one cell, I sometimes use italics to emphasize certain parts. The italic formatting for those few words is not copied over with VLOOKUP. I was wondering if this was possible.

I tried to google this problem, and found somebody else asking this not too long ago on the google forums, but there were no replies there. Hoping to have a bit more luck here.

Example

In cell Sheet2!A1 is 'Name', in Sheet2!C1 is 'Description with italics'
In cell B2 on the active sheet is the searchbar (filled with 'Name')

I currently retrieve the information using: 

=VLOOKUP($B$2,Sheet2!A1:C,3,false)

This would return 'Description with italics'

I would like to get 'Description with italics' returned instead.

1
google-sheetscopyformatlookup

1 Answers

0
votes

Partial formatting of cell content was introduced recently and has very limited support in Google Sheets. About the only thing it is good for is formatting of headers and other informational elements, like

| Invoices sent | Invoices not sent |

To save yourself frustration, I suggest using partial formatting just for that, and not for data.

  • Formulas do not preserve partial formatting, even the simplest =A1 removes it.
  • Scripts do not support creation of copying of partial formatting, either.