Excel Macro VBA Use HTML Tags Bold Italics Underline Strong in Cell - html

Question

I have been looking to convert a string or cell such as:
[Cell B2 Example]
"This is a <b>test</b> cell <i>filled</i> with <strong>randomly placed html tags</strong>."
[Needed Output Example] "This is a test cell filled with randomly placed html tags."
I need to be able to process multiple types of tags (<b></b> , <i></i> , <u></u> , <strong></strong>) in the same cell or string.
So far, someone has helped me with getting this far:
Dim Tag, Tend, Pstart, Pend As String
'BOLD Text
Tag = "<b>" ' tag string: start
Tend = "</b>" ' tag string: end
Pstart = 0 ' vector index of Pos()
Pend = 1 ' vector index of Pos()
Dim Cv As String ' Cell value
Dim Cnt As Integer ' instances of bold expressions
Dim Pos() As Variant ' string positions: 0 = start, 1 = End
Dim f As Integer ' loop counter: Cnt
Cv = Range("B2").Value
Cnt = (Len(Cv) - Len(Replace(Cv, Tag, ""))) / 3
ReDim Pos(Cnt, Pend)
For f = 1 To Cnt
Pos(f, Pstart) = InStr(Cv, Tag)
Cv = Left(Cv, Pos(f, Pstart) - 1) & Mid(Cv, Pos(f, Pstart) + Len(Tag), Len(Cv))
Pos(f, Pend) = InStr(Cv, Tend) - 1
Cv = Left(Cv, Pos(f, Pend)) & Mid(Cv, Pos(f, Pend) + Len(Tend) + 1, Len(Cv))
Next f
With Range("B2")
.Font.Bold = False
.Value = Cv
For f = 1 To Cnt
.Characters(Pos(f, Pstart), Pos(f, Pend) - Pos(f, Pstart) + 1).Font.Bold = True
Next f
End With
The above successfully makes needed text bold AND removes the visual tags from the cell.
However, when trying to also incorporate italics, underline, and strong tags, it only does which ever come last. The rest get wiped out.
Is there a better way to do this?
Can multiple html tags be converted in excel strings or cells WITHOUT having to open other applications such as IE, etc?
Side note, as for the tags, it would be fine if they functioned the same as bold, if that makes it easier?

Answer 1

As soon as you assign the cell's .Value property, any per-character font formatting will be lost, so you can't do that as part of the formatting process.
Here's one way to do it - not bulletproof and will not account for (eg) nested sets of the same tag or invalid HTML...
Sub Tester()
Dim c As Range
Set c = ActiveSheet.Range("D5")
ActiveSheet.Range("D2").Copy c 'for testing:copy the input string
FormatTags c, "b", "bold"
FormatTags c, "i", "italic"
FormatTags c, "strong", "bold"
FormatTags c, "u", "underline"
End Sub
Sub FormatTags(c As Range, tag As String, prop As String)
Dim pOpen As Long, pClose As Long, numChars As Long
Dim sOpen, sClose
sOpen = "<" & tag & ">" 'the open tag
sClose = "</" & tag & ">" 'close tag
pOpen = InStr(c.Value, sOpen) 'have an open tag?
Do While pOpen > 0
pClose = InStr(pOpen + 1, c.Value, sClose) 'find next close tag
If pClose > 0 Then
c.Characters(pClose, Len(sClose)).Delete 'remove the close tag first
c.Characters(pOpen, Len(sOpen)).Delete 'remove the open tag
'set the named font property
numChars = pClose - (pOpen + Len(sOpen))
CallByName c.Characters(pOpen, numChars).Font, prop, VbLet, True
pOpen = InStr(c.Value, sOpen) 'find next, if any
Else
Exit Do 'no closing tag - all done
End If
Loop
End Sub
Edit - if you're interested in a more general-purpose approach which doesn't involve IE you can copy the HTML to the clipboard and paste it to a cell. That will give you the formatting you want.
Eg - using #GMCB's code from here: Injecting RTF code in the Clipboard to paste into MS Word as RTF text via a VBA macro
With ActiveSheet
myClipboard.SetClipboardText .Range("D5").value, "HTML Format"
.Paste Destination:=.Range("D5")
End With