Find and Replace issues in Excel 2008

[jbbrandon]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Have just migrated from Windows to Mac OS. I am wondering why the Mac version of Excel does not have the same Find and Replace functionality as the Windows version with respect to searching in and replacing formulas, and applying formatting to both search and replace functions. Is there a workaround for these deficiencies? Thanks.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

Have just migrated from Windows to Mac OS. I am wondering why the Mac version
of Excel does not have the same Find and Replace functionality as the Windows
version with respect to searching in and replacing formulas, and applying
formatting to both search and replace functions. Is there a workaround for
these deficiencies? Thanks.

What exactly are you trying to do? It's hard to suggest a workaround
unless you're specific about what you're attempting to accomplish

 

[jbbrandon]

What exactly are you trying to do? It's hard to suggest a workaround
unless you're specific about what you're attempting to accomplish

As mentioned in my question, I am trying to search for cells in a range meeting formatting criteria (eg, only those cells highlighted with a certain background color) and replace the contents with something else with a different format (eg, different cell entry or different background color). I have been doing this in Windows Excel for years, and am wondering why the Mac OS version of Excel does not have the same formatting functionality in Find & Replace.

In fact, the description for "Replace.." in the Customize Toolbars states that it ..."searches for and replaces specified text, formatting, footnotes, endnotes or comment marks in the active document"... (and this is indeed what the Windows version of Excel has always done). However, it appears that it only searches for and replaces specified text (without the formatting, etc).

I admit I am new to the Mac OS environment, and perhaps I am missing something. Is there a fix for this? Thanks.

 

[CyberTaz]

Can't tell you "Why" - you'll have to ask MacBU about that - but you're
right. The F&R capabilities of Mac Excel lack the functionality you're
looking for - especially if you're comparing to Excel 2007.

As to the descriptive information in the Customize dialog... Well, I can
only speculate, but I think much of that type of stuff is just brought over
from the PC side and/or from the comparable feature in Word because *most*
of it pertains to features which *are* [virtually] identical. In this case,
however, the feature isn't even comparable so the description for the
Replace command is just plain deceptively wrong. (In this case I'm pretty
sure it simply was copied from Word's F&R dialog because even PC Excel
doesn't support footnotes or endnotes )

You might take a moment to use Help> Send Feedback to raise the
consciousness level of those who have influence on such matters. Don't
expect any changes to be made as far a updates to v.12.x but perhaps the
next major release will benefit from your input.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac