Find and Replace in Excel, Plus Go To Special

The Find & Select menu on the Home tab does two jobs: it finds (and replaces) text, and it selects special kinds of cells, such as every cell with a formula.

Find text

1. On the Home tab, click Find & Select. (Shortcut: Ctrl + F.)

   

2. Click Find.

   

3. In the Find and Replace dialog box, type the text to look for, for example Accounting.

4. Click Find Next. Excel jumps to the first cell that contains it.

   

Click Find All to see a list of every matching cell instead.

Note: To search the whole sheet, select a single cell first. To search only part of it, select that range first.

Replace text

1. On the Home tab, click Find & Select. (Shortcut: Ctrl + H.)

   

2. Click Replace.

   

3. In Find what, type the text to find (Marketing). In Replace with, type the new text (Advertising).

   

4. To replace one at a time, click Find Next.

   

5. Click Replace. The first match is replaced, and Excel moves to the next one.

   

6. To replace every match at once, click Replace All.

   

Go To Special

Go To Special selects all cells of a certain type: formulas, comments, constants, blanks, data validation, conditional formatting and more.

1. Select any single cell, for example E4.

   

2. On the Home tab, click Find & Select > Go To Special.

   

3. Choose Formulas and click OK.

   

Result: every cell that contains a formula is selected.

For more search options, such as matching case or searching the whole workbook, see Advanced Find Features.