Use the Find and Replace dialog box to search for and optionally replace a string of characters with another string of characters.In this article

Find

Find what Enter the information that you want to search for. You can use a question mark (?) to match any single character or an asterisk (*) to match any string of characters. For example, sm?th finds "smith" and "smyth" and *east finds "Northeast" and "Southeast."

Format Allows you to search for text or numbers that also have specific formatting. If you want to find cells that just match a specific format, you can delete any criteria in the Find what box and then select a specific cell format as an example. Click the arrow next to Format, click Choose Format From Cell, and then click the cell that has the formatting that you want to search for.

Options Displays advanced search options. This button changes to Options << while these advanced options are displayed. Click Options << to hide the advanced options.

Within Select Sheet to restrict your search to the active worksheet. Select Workbook to search all sheets in the active workbook.

Search Click the direction that you want to search: down through columns by using By columns or to the right across rows by using By rows. To search up in columns or to the left across rows, hold down SHIFT and click Find Next. In most cases, it is faster to select By columns.

Look in Specifies whether you want to search the value of the cells or their underlying formulas. For instance, a cell could appear on the worksheet as "11" but actually contain a formula ="1"&"1". Look in: Values would find this cell when searching for "11". Look in: Formulas would not. You can also choose to search comments attached to cells. On the Replace tab, Look in: Formulas is the only option.

Match case Distinguishes between uppercase and lowercase characters.

Match entire cell contents Searches for an exact and complete match of characters that are specified in the Find what box.

Find All Finds all occurrences of the search criteria in your document. If you want to find and review each occurrence separately, click Find Next instead of Find All.

Find Next Searches for the next occurrence of the characters specified in the Find what box. To find the previous occurrence, hold down SHIFT and click Find Next.

Close Closes the Find and Replace dialog box when you've completed your search.

Replace

Note The Replace tab has the same options as the Find tab, with the following additional options that you can use to replace the data that you search for.

Replace with Type the replacement characters that you want to use to replace the characters in the Find what box. To delete the characters in the Find what box from your document, leave the Replace with box blank.

Replace All Replaces all occurrences of the search criteria in your document. If you want to review and selectively replace each occurrence, click Replace instead of Replace All.

Replace Replaces the selected occurrence of the criteria in the Find what box, finds the next occurrence, and then stops. If you want to automatically replace all occurrences of the search criteria in your document, click Replace All.