How to Search in Excel

Not all of us are experts on MS Excel. Though the interface is quite friendly to the users, most of us are not that proficient in the application especially those who rarely use Computers to type in data which consist of numbers. Excel is a great tool for computations and in order to fully learn its capabilities, we need to know about its features and functions. One of which is by learning how to search in Excel.

How to Search in Excel

How to Search in Excel

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How to Search in Excel

How to Search in Excel

If you would like to find data in Excel, it is almost like in Word. You hit CTRL + F on your keyboard and then you type in the words, text, or characters that you would like the application to find. Then, it will bring you to the cell in which the data can be found.

However, there are some cases that can be a little complicated such as when you aresearching for data with asterisks, question marks and tildes. All of these characters have special meanings in the said application. Hence, if you try to search in Excel using CTRL + F and typing in * ~ or?, you will not get what you are actually searching for. For instance, if you enter the asterisk on the Find what box, you will automatically select the next cell where you once have been. It is time for you to make aMends by inserting tilde before the character that you are looking for. For example, if you want to locate asterisk, you enter "~ *" without the quotes. For tilde and question mark, you input "~ ~ ~" and "?" respectively.

Now, what if you have numerous spreadsheets already and you wish to search a number or string "just the way you do it using CTRL + F? You can eliminate thetedium of the Job by using a single command that will allow you to search easily and quickly in Excel. You can even edit your sheets but be careful because it may be a little dangerous to your file if you do not follow cautiously.

Let us say that you have three sheets and you want Excel to search for a particular string in all of them. First you go to the bottom of the Window and right click on one of the tabs for the sheets. Then a shortcut Menu will appear. Click on Select All Sheets. This is now known as Group mode. Now, call in the Excel search function dialog box by pressing CTRL + F on your keyboard. Enter the string that you are looking for and press enter. If the string you typed is present, Excel will find it for you.

How to Search in Excel