Page 235 - Excel 2013 All-in-One For Dummies

Find and Replace This Disgrace! 217
3. Type the search string that you want to locate in the Find What
combo box.
When entering the search string, you can use the question mark (?) or asterisk (*) wildcards to stand in for any characters that you’re unsure of. Use the question mark to stand for a single character, as in Sm?th, which will match either Smith or Smyth. Use the asterisk to stand for multiple characters as in 9*1, which will locate 91, 94901, or even 9553 1st Street. To search with the asterisk as a wildcard character, precede the character with a tilde (~), as in ~*2.5, to locate formulas that are multiplied by the number 2.5. (The asterisk is the multiplication opera- tor in Excel.)
If the cell holding the search string that you’re looking for is formatted in a particular way, you can narrow the search by specifying what for- matting to search for.
4. Click the Options button and then click the Format drop-down button to specify the formatting to search for in addition to your search string. Click the Format button to select the formatting from the Find Format dialog box or click Choose Format from Cell to select the for- matting directly from a cell in the worksheet.
When you click the Format button, Excel opens a Find Format dialog box with the same tabs and options as the standard Format Cells dialog box. You then select the formatting that you want to search for in this dialog box and click OK.
When you choose the Choose Format from Cell item from the Format button’s drop-down menu, the Find and Replace dialog box temporar- ily disappears until you click the cell in the worksheet that contains the formatting that you want to search for with the thick, white-cross mouse pointer with eyedropper icon.
Note that when using the Find feature to locate a search string, by default, Excel searches only the current worksheet for your search string. If you want Excel to search all the cells of all worksheets in the workbook, you need to follow Step 5.
5. Choose the Workbook option from the Within drop-down menu to have Excel search all worksheets in the workbook.
If the Within drop-down list box doesn’t appear at the bottom of your Find and Replace dialog box, click the Options button to expand it and add the Within, Search, and Look In drop-down lists along with the Match Case and Match Entire Cell Contents check boxes.
By default, Excel searches across the rows in the worksheet or current selection (that is, to the right and then down from the active cell). If you want to have the program search down the columns and then across the rows, you need to follow Step 6.
Book II Chapter 3
Editing and Proofing Worksheets