im trying to get certain text cells in a spreadsheet to flash or blink is there a way to do this please
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Not the cell text, but you can create a shape with a blink text inside.
Menu/Insert/Shape/Basic/Rectangle
Double click on it so you can insert and edit the text,
select the text and right-click, select āTextā,
select āText animationā,
select āEffectā - āBlinkā.
With 6.2 you can āAnchorā - āTo cell (resize with cell)ā
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@mariosv
It appears that if the underlying cell is not sufficiently large enough to completely surround the inserted shape then the blink function only gets as far as switching the text off but never turns it back on again - I eventually figured it out. 
Is there a way in which the functionality can be activated by a conditional format?
I cannot replicate the problem of the cell being smaller than the shape in 7.2.2.2.
Outside of blinking, would the icon set for conditional format be enough? Under conditional formatting pick All Cells in the first drop box, then Icon Set in the second drop box, then pick your icons in the third drop box. Then edit the conditions below for value or formula.
Perhaps itās a 7.2.4.1 issue. As it took quite a few experiments to get it to function Iāll just try again with a fresh sheet. I will experiment with the Suggestion when I wake up 
Thanks
@joshua4 Interesting. Attached is my sheet (NoBlink) which for me is not blinking.
NoBlink.ods (8.5 KB)
Open the original example from @mariosv and open NoBlink
Iām going to assume my shapes are not blinking
As far as I can tell the settings are compatible
Select and copy one of my shapes to the original sample - Does it blink for you?
Select and copy the shape from the original sample to NoBlink - Does it blink for you?
Copy the NoBlink sample back from the original sheet to NoBlink - Does it blink for you?
Am I missing something?
Version: 7.2.4.1 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 27d75539669ac387bb498e35313b970b7fe9c4f9
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19043; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: sv-SE (en_GB); UI: en-GB
Calc: threaded
Just experimented with this - whilst itās something new Iāve learned - my need was for an āalertā to signify that an item on another sheet is going to need attention soon.
Iāve already figured out - using white text format - and a conditional fill colour when the alert is approaching but thatās static and I was just trying to polish it into a blink.
Other experiments with an external link updated every few āoddā seconds 3 - 5 - 7 etc and conditionally allied to my prompt [odd or even seconds], does allow me to produce many visual alerts but then Iām filling the undo buffer with links - even if I then delete the target file.
I normally have the āliveā sheet active for about 20 minutes so it would be quite tedious to āundoā something even from only 1 minute ago.
Perhaps I should just ābite the bulletā and ensure I donāt make mistakes when manipulating the sheet.
Is there a ālimitā to what is a reasonable number of undo requests?
Thatās odd. As soon as you Name a drawing object with blinking text, it stops blinking. Conversely, I can make yours blink by right-clicking, selecting Name, deleting its name and OK.
Seems buggish to meā¦
2 minutes later: No. It becomes a very slow blink, the names have just disappeared, I expect they will be back.
How on earth did you equate that?
If the system defaults the name, is it ok to delete all names if multiple blinking objects are created?
Do you think I should raise the issue and let them reject it?
I havenāt looked at it particularly closely but it does have the appearance of a bug.
@mikekaganski appended another report ID to this but Iām uncertain whether the sentiment is that this is a legacy feature and should be deemed āredundantā for all of LO or just for WRITER. As identified by @EarnestAl, removing the name activates it in CALC but the procedure for removing the name in a WRITER shape just doesnāt exist. Is the bug possibly that the removal from CALC was overlooked?
In LO 6.4.7.2 Writer, if I select some text in the body of a document and click Format > Character and in the dialogue window select the Font Effects tab there is a box labelled Blinking which makes any text blink. This box has been removed from the dialogue in LO 7. (There is not any box to enable blinking characters in Calc in 6.4.7.2.)
Shapes in any application can still have blinking (or scrolling) text, even in 7.3.0.0beta1 but being named slows the rate of blink so much that sometimes the text appears normal (steady), at other times it is missing (hidden). It is easier to see the change if set to scroll.
I get the impression from Mike Kaganskiās addendum (A similar Writer bug report) to my bug report that the feature is āundesiredā and is only available in LO Writer for backward compatibility - but unpublicised.
The full feature still appears to be available in CALC 7.2. Iāve asked whether the intention is to deprecate it and also suggested that it could be a desirable feature in CALC if it were allied to conditional formatting and Styles as it would be the perfect medium for delivering alerts for upcoming events on other sheets in the file - possibly even in linked files.
It is not available in LO7 for body text; it was in LO6.
It is still available for drawing objects with text
I think the powers that be are probably quite undecided about where/if it should be retained as it appears it was only ever there for compatibility with Excel and now Excel is phasing it out.