Tip #4125 - Selecting Cells with Just "The Right Stuff"
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Selecting
Cells with Just "The Right Stuff"
Have you ever looked
at an MS Excel worksheet and wondered how long it was going to take you
to select only those cells that contain text or formulas or numbers or
those cells that have errors?
Plus, while you're
wondering that, you're just dreading the old Ctrl key + click, click and
click some more on all cells that meet the criteria.
Maybe you're trying
to protect the text of the file and need all those cells selected or maybe
you're looking to format all the numbers differently. Whatever your situation,
you need to select only the cells containing a specific type of information
and you need a quick way to select them all at once.
Seems like a perfectly
reasonable request to me, so let's take a look at a way to get the job
done efficiently!
You obviously need
to have the file open and be on the worksheet with which you're looking
to search. Have only one cell selected as well. If you have several highlighted,
it will only search through the highlighted cells and not the whole worksheet.
Now, open the Go To
feature (Edit menu, Go To choice or
Ctrl + G or the F5 key).
When the Go To window
opens, you're looking for the Special button.
When the Go To Special
window opens, you're looking to select Constants. (If
you're only trying to find formulas, select that choice and follow the
same steps as below).
When you select "Constants,"
you'll notice that the choices just below the Formulas choice become active.
You need to leave
only the type of data you're looking to highlight still checked.
So, if you're looking
to highlight only text, unselect everything, but the text option.
When you've made your
selection, click the OK button.
Poof!
You're returned to
the worksheet with all the cells highlighted that contain your requested
data type.
Here's a bonus idea:
You can use the same type of logic used in last Friday's MS Office tip
to select multiple sheets and run this same type of Go To search to select
cells with certain types of data with just one quick move.
So, say bye bye to
the old Ctrl + click, click, click.
You gotta love the
efficiency!
~ April
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