Hey Skillet,
Okay, the picture makes it easier to understand the problem.
This task is scriptable. Here are some hints:
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
tell active window
# Just tests.
set rangeSelection to range selection
set _color to color of font object of selection
set _coler to reverse of _color
# Reverse selection.
set v1 to value of selection
set newValue to reverse of v1
set value of selection to newValue
set color of font object of selection to _color
end tell
end tell
# Simple Demo of changing font color of selection.
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
tell active window
set color of font object of selection to {255, 0, 0}
end tell
end tell
I suspect it might be done with VBA as well in Excel 14.4.x — but I don’t use VBA and cannot be certain.
Swapping the values turns out to be dead simple (see script above), but getting the text-style-info for individual cells or rows or columns is more complicated.
Excel is a bit funny about how it manages styles in cells and how it copies and pastes ranges.
Even so I was able to perform your task manually using LaunchBar’s saved clipboards.
I tried doing this manually using Keyboard Maestro’s clipboard history switcher to no avail.
So. There might be something Peter can do to improve things behind the scenes.
But I would pursue the scripted solution myself.
I would ask on the Applescript Users List and MacScripter.net, and Microsoft probably has forums devoted to Excel.
That’s about all the time I’m interested in devoting to this, although I might get curious about dealing with fonts in Excel and fiddle with it some more at some point.
Okay, I got curious…
This will reverse the rows of the selection and maintain the color of the text.
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
tell active window
set fontColorList to {}
tell selection
set valueList to its value
set rowList to its rows
end tell
repeat with i in rowList
set end of fontColorList to color of font object of i
end repeat
set value of selection to reverse of valueList
set fontColorList to reverse of fontColorList
set n to 0
repeat with i in rowList
set n to n + 1
set color of (font object of i) to (item n of fontColorList)
end repeat
end tell
end tell
If you need to do more than color you’re on your own.
I would think it would be possible to grab a range with complete style information and do something with it, however I’m not going to try to chase that down.
-Chris