Issue 128100

Created attachment 86668 [details]
STYLE() function disabling comments in Conditional Formatting

If you use the STYLE() function in ANY Conditional Formatting formula, it stops all comments on the spreadsheet from appearing when you hover your pointer over them.

My initial aim was to write a Conditional Formatting formula that changed the cell colour depending on the words in it. I had five different words, each associated with a different colour. Given that this is more than the three Conditional Formatting conditions allowed, I therefore wrote a single formula using a bunch of nested IF functions to change the colour appropriately using the STYLE() function. This worked well but had the peculiar unwanted side-effect of disabling all my comments.

I have included a simple attachment to demonstrate this, as follows:

(a) In the attachment, Column A has a Conditional Formatting formula whereby the cells turn blue if they contain the word "Weekly". You will notice that the cells HEADING 1, HEADING 2 and HEADING 3 will not show their comments if you hover over them.

(b) If you now select Column A, then choose Format -> Conditional Formatting..., then remove the formula there, you will be able to see the comments again if you hover over the three HEADING cells.

(c) In fact, this disabling of the comments happens even if you apply the Conditional Formatting formula to just a single cell.

(d) The comments also return if you switch off AutoCalculate, but then the Conditional Formatting fails to work, so of course that is not an acceptable solution.

As far as I can tell, it does appear to be the STYLE() function that's causing this peculiar behaviour (vs. e.g. the IF function).