Complete guide to Excel 2016 (Part 10): Use the Find and Replace function

You can easily search for the Workbook file in Excel using the Find feature and enable content modification using the Replace feature. Please refer to the tutorial using Find and Replace in Excel 2016 !

Check out the video below to learn more about how to use the Find & Replace feature:

Search content in Excel 2016

In the example, we will use the Find command to locate a specific part in this list.

1. From the Home tab, click the Find and Select command, then select Find from the drop-down menu.

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2. The Find and Replace dialog box will appear. Enter the content you want to find. In the example, we will enter the name of the department.

3. Click Find Next . If the content is found, the cell containing that content will be selected.

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4. Click Find Next to find other locations or Find All to see each location of the search term.

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5. When finished, click Close to exit the Find and Replace dialog box.

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1. You can also access the Find command by pressing Ctrl + F on the keyboard.
2. Click Options to see advanced search criteria in the Find and Replace dialog box.

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Replace the content in Excel 2016 box

Sometimes, you may detect many errors in your workbook file (such as spelling someone's spelling wrongly) or you need to change a specific word or phrase to another word or phrase. You can use Excel's Find and Replace feature to make quick modifications. In the example, we will use Find and Replace to edit the list of parts names.

1. From the Home tab, click the Find and Select command, and then select Replace from the drop-down menu.

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2. The Find and Replace dialog box will appear. Enter the text you want to find in the Find what: field .

3. Enter the text you want to replace in the Replace with: field , and then click Find Next .

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4. If the content is found, the cell containing that content will be selected.

5. Review the text to make sure you want to replace it.

6. If you want to replace it, choose one of the alternatives. Select Replace will replace the individual instances, while selecting Replace All will replace all text words or phrases in the workbook file. In the example, we will choose this option to save time.

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7. A dialog box will appear, confirming the amount of replacement made. Click OK to continue.

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8. The contents of the selected cell will be replaced.

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9. When finished, click Close to exit the Find and Replace dialog box.

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In general, it's best to avoid Replace All because it doesn't give you the option of ignoring anything you don't want to change. You should only use this option if absolutely sure it will not replace anything you do not want.

Having fun!

Micah Soto

Update 25 May 2019