Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Finding Cells Filled with a Particular Color.
Vanita asked if there is a way to select cells containing a specific color. Accomplishing the task is easy; just follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
Figure 2. The Fill tab of the Find Format dialog box.
Figure 3. The expanded Find and Replace dialog box.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6224) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Finding Cells Filled with a Particular Color.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
Need to add some characters to the beginning of the contents in a range of cells? It's not as easy as you might hope, but ...
Discover MoreWhen doing searches in Excel, you can use wildcard characters in the specification of what you are searching. However, ...
Discover MoreWant to use Find and Replace to change the formatting of a cell's contents? You would be out of luck; Excel won't let you ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2018-08-20 17:21:50
Zolt
This wasn't working for me either (Excel 2016). Then I noticed that my Find Format had other parameters set (Number, Alignment, Font, etc), probably sticky from a previous find action. When I cleared them (Clear button on each tab), the instructions in the article worked as advertised.
2016-08-05 06:33:40
Willy Vanhaelen
@Christine
Perhaps the background color is set by conditional formatting. Find doesn't work on these.
If that is the case you can change the background color by editing the rule
- in the Home tab of the ribbon click the down arrow next to Conditional Formatting
- select Manage Rules...
- click on the rule whose format you want to change
- click Edit Rule...
- click Format
- select the color you want
2016-08-04 17:39:56
Chrisitne
I have Excel 2013 and my find feature will not find background color. I have tons of cells with one color that I need to change to another color. I do just like it says, but when I hit "Find all", it runs through my worksheet and says it cannot find anything. I choose the color by actually clicking on a cell, so I know it's exactly the correct color. Any ideas?
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2020 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
Comments