Find and Replace is in the Edit menu on Mac, the Home tab on Windows

On Windows, Find and Replace lives on the Home tab in the ribbon at the top of your spreadsheet. Look for the Find & Replace button in the Editing group on the right side of the ribbon. You can also press Ctrl+H to open it when ready without clicking through the menu.

On Mac, go to the Edit menu at the top of your screen and select Find, then Replace. The keyboard shortcut is Command+Option+F. Both routes open the same dialog box where you type what you want to find and what you want to replace it with.

The Find and Replace dialog stays open while you work, so you can run multiple replacements in the same session without closing and reopening it. If you only need to find text without replacing it, you can use Ctrl+F (Windows) or Command+F (Mac) instead, which opens a simpler Find toolbar.

Key Takeaways

  • Windows users press Ctrl+H or click the Find & Replace button in the Home tab's Editing group.
  • Mac users press Command+Option+F or go to Edit menu and select Find, then Replace.
  • The dialog box lets you replace one instance at a time or all instances in your spreadsheet at once.
  • You can search within a single sheet or your entire workbook by changing the search scope in the dialog options.

What the Find and Replace dialog box contains

Once the dialog opens, you will see two main text fields: Find what and Replace with. Type the text or number you want to locate in the Find field, and type what you want to replace it with in the Replace field. If you leave the Replace field empty and click Replace All, Excel will delete the found text instead.

Below those fields are buttons for Replace (replaces one instance), Replace All (replaces every instance at once), and Find All (shows you every location where the text appears without replacing anything). The Find All button is useful when you want to see how many times something appears before you commit to replacing it.

On the right side of the dialog, you will find a Options button (or arrow) that expands to show additional settings. These include whether to match the case of your text, search for whole words only, and whether to search within formulas or just the displayed values in cells.

Choosing where Excel searches

By default, Find and Replace searches your entire workbook — all sheets in the file. If you want to search only the current sheet you are viewing, click Options to expand the menu, then change the Within dropdown from Workbook to Sheet.

You can also narrow your search to a specific range of cells by selecting those cells before you open Find and Replace. Excel will then search only within your selection, though you may need to check the Options menu to confirm the search scope is set correctly.

Using Find and Replace with formulas and values

By default, Find and Replace searches the values displayed in cells — the numbers or text you see on screen. If you want to search inside formulas instead, click Options and check the box for Search in Formulas (Windows) or Search in and select Formulas (Mac).

This matters when you are replacing cell references. For example, if you have a formula that refers to column A and you want to change all those references to column B, you would search for "A" with formulas enabled. Searching values only would miss the references inside the formulas and replace only the displayed results, which is usually not what you want.

Matching case and whole words

Excel treats "Sales" and "sales" as the same text by default. If you need to replace only the capitalized version, click Options and check Match Case. This tells Excel to treat uppercase and lowercase letters as different, so it will skip "sales" and replace only "Sales".

The Match Entire Cell Contents option (or Entire Cell on Mac) searches for text that fills the entire cell, not text that appears as part of a longer word. For example, if you search for "cat" without this option checked, Excel will find "cat", "catalog", and "concatenate". With the option checked, it finds only cells that contain exactly "cat" and nothing else.

Replacing one instance at a time versus all at once

When you click Replace, Excel replaces the first instance it finds and moves to the next one. This lets you review each replacement before it happens. Click Replace again to replace the next instance, or click Find Next to skip it without replacing.

Replace All replaces every instance in one action without pausing. Excel will tell you how many replacements it made when it finishes. Use Replace All when you are confident the search term is specific enough that you want every instance replaced — for example, replacing a company name that appears nowhere else in your spreadsheet.

Undoing a replacement you did not mean to make

If you run Replace All and realize you made a mistake, press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Command+Z (Mac) when ready to undo the entire replacement. Excel will restore your spreadsheet to the state it was in before you clicked Replace All. This works even if you closed the Find and Replace dialog.

If you replaced instances one at a time and want to undo only some of them, you can undo multiple times by pressing Ctrl+Z or Command+Z repeatedly. Each press undoes one replacement in reverse order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I search for a line break or special character in Find and Replace?

Yes, but the method depends on what you are searching for. To find a line break within a cell (created by pressing Alt+Enter), enable Options and search for the code ^l (caret followed by the letter L) on Windows, or Ctrl+J on Mac. For other special characters like tabs, use ^t on Windows. Check your version's Help menu for a full list of codes.

What if Find and Replace is not finding text I know is in my spreadsheet?

Check whether you have limited your search to a single sheet when you meant to search the whole workbook, or vice versa. Also verify that you are not searching in formulas when the text appears only in displayed values, or searching in values when the text is inside a formula. Clearing the Match Case option can also help if capitalization is different from what you typed.

Can I use wildcards in Find and Replace?

Yes. The asterisk * matches any number of characters, and the question mark ? matches exactly one character. For example, searching for cat* finds "cat", "catalog", and "category". You must enable Options and check Regular Expressions (or Use Regular Expressions on Mac) for wildcards to work.

Does Find and Replace work the same way in Excel Online as in the desktop version?

Excel Online has a simpler Find and Replace with fewer options. Press Ctrl+H to open it, but you will not see all the advanced settings like Match Case or Search in Formulas. For complex replacements, use the desktop version of Excel instead.