title: Formatting individual characters in a cell - inexplicable behavior
body: <p>I have code in a macro that formats individual characters in a cell. Recently, it has stopped working, and only formats all the characters or none at all.</p>
  
  <p>I have reduced the code to just a few lines to test, and it fails on two different machines (one Mac, one PC). I've restarted many times. Both machines exhibit the same incorrect behavior.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Sub formattest()
      Workbooks("Text.xlsm").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(1, 1).Characters(Start:=1, Length:=1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 0)
      Workbooks("Text.xlsm").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(1, 1).Characters(Start:=1, Length:=1).Font.Bold = True
  End Sub
  
  Sub formattest2()
      Workbooks("Text.xlsm").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(1, 1).Characters(1, 1).Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 0)
      Workbooks("Text.xlsm").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(1, 1).Characters(1, 1).Font.Bold = True
  End Sub
  
  Sub formattest3()
      With Workbooks("Text.xlsm").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(1, 1).Characters(1, 1).font
          .Color = RGB(0, 0, 0)
          .Bold = True
      End With
  End Sub
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In all three subroutines, I expect only the first character in cell 1,1 to be formatted, but that is not what happens. I thought it was specific to Excel getting into a strange state, which is why I tried on two different machines and restarted. What happened and why did it once work but no longer does? Is there anything I can do to achieve the behavior I want?</p>