Tag Archives: excel

Changing Formatting in Excel with Find & Replace

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

Have you ever needed to change the formatting of a whole bunch of cells in a spreadsheet? Of course, if those cells are all in a single column, all you have to do is select the column by clicking the letter heading it, right-clicking and selecting Format Cells. If there are a few different cells that you need to change and you know exactly where they are, you can hold down the Ctrl key, click on them one by one and then right-click and select Format Cells. However, if you have cells all over the place that you need to change from one format to another and you have no clue where they all might be, you have another option.

FindandReplaceScreenshot.JPGPress Ctrl+H to open the Find and Replace dialog with the Replace tab selected. Click on the Options button to expand the dialog if the Within, Search and Look In options are not visible. Click on Format next to Find What. Choose the format of the cells that you want to find and replace. Click OK. Click Format next to Replace With. Choose the format you want to apply to the cells, replacing the current format and click OK. If you want to change the format of the cells in the entire workbook, select Workbook in the Within list. There are countless ways that you can use this feature. Change the appearance of borders or the fill color of the cells. Change the font, alignment or number format. Whatever formatting you want to change, Find and Replace is the way to go.