Question

I need to process an excel file where the alpha symbol(α) has been entered as an “a” character to which the symbol font has been applied.

When exporting the file, formatting is lost and there is no more distinction between α and a.

Is is possible using VBA to replace “a”s that have a symbol formatting into the α symbol?

Answer 1

Public Sub ReplaceAlpha(ByVal Where As Range)
  With Application.FindFormat
    .Clear
    .Font.Name = "Symbol"
  End With

  With Application.ReplaceFormat
    .Clear
    .Font.Name = "Arial"
  End With

  Where.Replace What:="a", Replacement:=ChrW$(&H251), LookAt:=xlPart, SearchFormat:=True, ReplaceFormat:=True
End Sub

This will not find alphas that are inside a differently formatted string though.
If you have those, you will need something like

Public Sub ReplaceAlpha(ByVal Where As Range)

  Dim cur_cell As Range

  For Each cur_cell In Where
    Dim i As Long
    For i = 1 To Len(cur_cell.Value)
      With cur_cell.Characters(i, 1)
        If .Text = "a" Then
          If .Font.Name = "Symbol" Then
            .Text = ChrW$(&H251)
            .Font.Name = "Arial"
          End If
        End If
      End With
    Next
  Next

End Sub