Changing the Color Used to Highlight Found Information

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 8, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


1

When Christian uses Find and Replace on his system, any matches found are highlighted using a soft green border. This is very difficult for Christian to see, so he wonders if there is a way to have matches highlighted with a better color, such as a bright red.

There isn't a way to handle this in Excel, but it can be done in Windows. You'll need to fiddle about with the theme and colors used in Windows until you find one that affects, positively, the colors used within Excel. You can find out more information about making the changes in Windows by checking out this tip:

https://tips.net/T10110

Any change you make to Windows, however, will also affect any other program you run in Windows. If you don't want to go down that route, then there may be a different approach you can follow.

Let's say that you want to search for all instances of the letters "abc" in your worksheet. Press Ctrl+F to open the Find and Replace dialog box. Go ahead and type "abc" into the Find What box (without the quote marks), but then click on Find All. (Don't click on Find Next yet.) Excel expands the Find and Replace dialog box to show a list of matches. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Find and Replace dialog box shows a list of matched cells.

At this point you should immediately press Ctrl+A. Word selects all those cells in the worksheet, and it leaves the Find and Replace dialog box open. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The found cells are selected in the worksheet.

Notice that in selecting them all, the cells now show with a gray background. This makes those cells much easier to see. At this point you can use the Find Next button within the dialog box to move among all the selected cells.

It is also interesting to note that if you dismiss the Find and Replace dialog box at this point, all the matching cells will still be selected. This means you can format those cells using the tools on the Home tab of the ribbon. For instance, you might at this point fill the cells with a color such as yellow. This makes them much easier to see and you can, later, use this same Find-and-Replace process to find those cells and remove the formatting just applied.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (13900) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

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

Collating Copies

When you print multiple copies of worksheets that require more than one page each, you'll probably want those copies ...

Discover More

Blank Lines Before Tables

Adding a blank line before your table is easy, but Word's behavior as you attempt to make the insert can depend on where ...

Discover More

Limiting Printing to a Workbook from a Set Location

When you share workbooks on a company server, it can be frustrating if the workbooks are downloaded to individual ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! John Walkenbach's name is synonymous with excellence in deciphering complex technical topics. With this comprehensive guide, "Mr. Spreadsheet" shows how to maximize your Excel experience using professional spreadsheet application development tips from his own personal bookshelf. Check out Excel 2013 Power Programming with VBA today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Searching a Workbook by Default

When you display the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box, you'll notice that any search, by default, will be on ...

Discover More

Making All Occurrences Bold

Want to make instances of a given word or phrase bold throughout a worksheet? Here's a way you can make the change quickly.

Discover More

Searching for Line Breaks

If you need to find where line breaks are located in cells, there are a couple of ways you can proceed. Here's a quick ...

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 one more than 9?

2023-07-08 09:52:59

J. Woolley

For related discussion, see https://excelribbon.tips.net/T010343_Changing_the_Outline_Color_of_the_Selected_Cell.html


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.