If the choice were between empty and a "Y", then I think you could use a number
format.

But I don't know a way of keeping the value (Y/N) and showing the tickmark.

Jay wrote:
>
> Hi Dave,
>
> Thanks for the response, I actually stangle my application if I go for that
> approach. The scripts I've written are all based on re-usable code that
> allows me to reformat the workbook to parent header info in the style of a
> form with lists of children and their properties. To add a further level of
> complexity I then generate a dynamic matrix of grandchild items next to the
> list. All of this is completely dynamic and I end up with a different no of
> worksheets based on the number of objects in my xml file. The formatting is
> all managed through a series of lookups and global parameters so I'd be
> adding quite a bit of complexity going this way. So, although I looked at
> that approach it doesn't really get me where I want to be.
>
> About my best approach at the moment is to write a small inbound parser
> function that turns my Ns into -1 and my Ys into 1. I can then set the font
> to "a";""; Marlett where a = "Tick" and I have the desired result, although
> I'm holding off doing this for performance reasons at the moment.
>
> I'm really curious to know if it can be done without changing and recasting
> my values, let me know if you have any other ideas
>
> Best Regards
>
> Jason Peel
>
> "Dave Peterson" wrote:
>
> > Can you use another cell?
> >
> > =if(a2="y",char(252),"")
> > format it with a Wingdings font.
> >
> >
> >
> > Jay wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I'm trying to get a range of cells, in fact a column of cells, to be
> > > formatted with a tick if the value contained within is Y. Unfortunately I
> > > can't change the value to 0 or 1 and use simple custom formats as the the
> > > information comes in from an xml file. This is further compounded by the
> > > fact that I have some validation routines to check what has changed on a
> > > reload of a similar xml file.
> > >
> > > Hence, I need to find a way of formatting a cell so that it displays a tick
> > > or nothing whilst maintaining the underlying string value Y or N. It seems
> > > that I might have to write a function to interpret Y/N to 1 and 0 in any
> > > case, followed by a custom format on the cells to display the appropriate
> > > tick string. I'd rather not do this as I know it will give me a serious
> > > performance hit on the xml upload routines.
> > >
> > > I'm wondering if there is anyone there who can help me round this one.
> > >
> > > Regards
> > >
> > > Jason
> >
> > --
> >
> > Dave Peterson
> >

--

Dave Peterson