hi john,

thanks for your reply! i like it that the code changes the font to gray color as well.

there's a small issue, when there's a line break in the cell like

"numbers
123"

the word "numbers" get replaced by a "__" but the numbers "123" doesn't. it only gets grayed out.

and when running the code, powerpoint goes into "not responding" mode, but it becomes fine again after a while.

i'll try tweaking the code to see if i can incorporate yours into the one i currently have.

thanks!