Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. 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: Limiting Searching to a Column.

Limiting Searching to a Column

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 28, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


1

As your worksheets start to contain more and more data, you'll find yourself often searching for information in the collected data. Most people do this by pressing Ctrl+F to display the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. From here you can do a search of the entire worksheet.

If you want to limit your search, however, there is one key thing you need to do: Select the range you want to search before pressing Ctrl+F. For instance, if you want to limit your search to a specific column of the worksheet, select that column before displaying the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. When the search is actually performed, only those cells in the selected range are included in the search; everything else is ignored.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10004) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Limiting Searching to a Column.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Locating the My Documents Folder

Need to do some macro processing of documents in the user's My Documents folder? First step is to figure out where the ...

Discover More

Working with Imperial Linear Distances

Excel works with decimal values very easily. It is more difficult for the program to work with non-decimal values, such ...

Discover More

Spacing Before and After Lists

When formatting a document that uses lists, you may want to adjust the space that appears just before and just after the ...

Discover More

Solve Real Business Problems Master business modeling and analysis techniques with Excel and transform data into bottom-line results. This hands-on, scenario-focused guide shows you how to use the latest Excel tools to integrate data from multiple tables. Check out Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Searching for Leading Apostrophes

Take a look at the Formula bar when you select a cell that contains text, and you may see an apostrophe at the beginning ...

Discover More

A Fast Find-Next

Tired of the Find and Replace dialog box blocking the view of your worksheet when you are searching for information? Do ...

Discover More

Getting a List of Matching Cells

The Find and Replace capabilities of Excel allow you to easily locate all the cells in a worksheet that contain specific ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 5 + 3?

2025-08-29 12:46:27

MarkB

Unless I click Find All and the search includes a word that is also in another column, then it jumps right out of the selected column


This Site

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.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.