How to Find and Replace Formatting in Excel

Microsoft Excel is widely known for its powerful calculation and data analysis capabilities, but formatting plays an equally important role in making spreadsheets readable, professional, and easy to interpret. Over time, however, worksheets can accumulate inconsistent fonts, colors, borders, and number formats—especially when data is copied from multiple sources or edited by different users.

This is where Find and Replace formatting becomes an essential but often overlooked feature. Beyond simply replacing text or values, Excel allows you to search for specific formatting attributes and replace them with new ones, helping you clean up, standardize, and manage large datasets efficiently.

In this article, you will learn how to find and replace formatting in Excel step by step, explore real-world use cases, understand limitations, and discover best practices to ensure consistent and professional-looking spreadsheets.

Understanding Formatting in Excel

Before diving into finding and replacing formatting, it’s important to understand what Excel considers “formatting.” Formatting refers to the visual and structural presentation of data rather than the data itself.

Common Types of Formatting in Excel

Excel supports a wide range of formatting options, including:

• Font formatting: Font type, size, color, bold, italic, underline
• Cell fill: Background colors and patterns
• Borders: Cell borders and grid styling
• Number formats: Currency, percentage, date, time, custom formats
• Alignment: Horizontal and vertical alignment, text orientation
• Conditional formatting: Rules-based formatting applied dynamically

When you use Find and Replace formatting, Excel allows you to target many of these properties without altering the underlying values.

Why Find and Replace Formatting Is Important

In small worksheets, inconsistent formatting might be easy to fix manually. In larger or shared workbooks, manual corrections are time-consuming and error-prone.

Common Scenarios Where This Feature Is Useful

• Standardizing fonts and colors across reports
• Removing unwanted highlights from imported data
• Updating outdated formatting styles
• Fixing inconsistencies caused by copy-pasting
• Preparing data for printing or presentation
• Cleaning up legacy spreadsheets

By using Find and Replace formatting, you can make bulk changes quickly and accurately.

Accessing the Find and Replace Tool

The Find and Replace dialog is the central place for working with formatting searches in Excel.

Opening the Find and Replace Dialog

You can open it in any of the following ways:

• Press Ctrl + F to open the Find tab
• Press Ctrl + H to open the Replace tab
• Go to the Home tab → Find & Select → Find or Replace

By default, the dialog focuses on finding text or values, but formatting options are available once expanded.

Revealing Formatting Options

Formatting-related controls are hidden by default and must be enabled manually.

Showing Advanced Options

1. Open the Find and Replace dialog
2. Click Options » at the bottom
3. You will now see Format… buttons next to the Find what and Replace with fields

These buttons allow you to define formatting criteria for searching and replacing.

Finding Cells Based on Formatting

Excel lets you search for cells that match specific formatting attributes, even if you do not know the exact values inside them.

Using the “Find Format” Option

1. Open the Find tab (Ctrl + F)
2. Click Options »
3. Click Format… next to Find what
4. Choose the formatting criteria (font, fill, border, number format, etc.)
5. Click OK
6. Click Find Next or Find All

Excel will now locate cells that match the specified formatting.

Example: Finding Highlighted Cells

Suppose you received a spreadsheet where certain cells were highlighted in yellow to indicate issues.

Steps:

• Open Find
• Set the fill color to yellow using Format…
• Run the search

Excel will identify every cell with that background color, regardless of its content.

Replacing Formatting in Excel

Replacing formatting works similarly to finding it, but with an additional step: defining what the new formatting should be.

Steps to Replace Formatting

1. Press Ctrl + H to open the Replace tab
2. Click Options »
3. Click Format… next to Find what and select the formatting to search for
4. Click Format… next to Replace with and select the new formatting
5. Click Replace or Replace All

Excel will replace the formatting without changing the cell values unless you specify text replacements as well.

Example: Replacing Bold Text with Normal Text

If some cells were mistakenly formatted in bold:

• Find formatting: Font → Bold
• Replace formatting: Font → Regular
• Apply Replace All

This removes bold formatting throughout the selected range or worksheet.

Using “Choose Format From Cell”

Excel also provides a shortcut to select formatting directly from an existing cell.

How to Use It

1. In the Find and Replace dialog, click Format…
2. Choose Choose Format From Cell
3. Click the cell that contains the desired formatting
4. Excel automatically copies its format

This method is especially useful when you want to match complex or mixed formatting without manually setting each attribute.

Limiting the Scope of Formatting Changes

Formatting changes can apply to more than you intend if you are not careful.

Restricting the Search Area

• Select a specific range before opening Find and Replace

• Excel will limit the operation to the selected cells

• Alternatively, use options such as:

  • Within: Sheet or Workbook
  • Search: By Rows or By Columns

This is particularly helpful in large spreadsheets with multiple sections.

Finding and Replacing Number Formatting

Number formats are a common source of inconsistency, especially in financial and date-related data.

Example: Replacing Text Numbers with Currency Format

If some values are formatted as General and others as Currency:

• Find formatting: Number → General
• Replace formatting: Number → Currency
• Apply replacement

This ensures consistent numeric presentation across reports.

Removing Unwanted Formatting

Sometimes the goal is not to replace formatting but to remove it entirely.

Clearing Formatting via Replace

To remove a specific format:

• Set the Find format
• Leave the Replace format empty
• Use Replace All

Excel will strip the formatting attributes defined in the search.

Limitations of Find and Replace Formatting

While powerful, this feature has some limitations that users should be aware of.

Known Constraints

• Cannot directly search for conditional formatting rules
• Cannot combine complex logical conditions (e.g., font color AND value range)
• Cannot search by format only without expanding options
• Replace actions cannot be undone selectively (only via Undo)

Understanding these limitations helps avoid unexpected results.

Best Practices for Using Find and Replace Formatting

To use this feature effectively and safely, follow these best practices:

1. Always Work on a Copy

Before making bulk formatting changes, save a backup of your file.

2. Use “Find All” First

Review the list of matched cells before replacing formatting.

3. Limit Your Selection

Apply changes to specific ranges whenever possible.

4. Combine with Cell Styles

Standardize formatting by replacing custom formats with predefined cell styles.

5. Undo Immediately If Needed

Excel allows only a single undo step for Replace All actions.

Real-World Use Case: Cleaning Imported Data

Imagine importing data from multiple CSV files where:

• Some headers are bold
• Some totals are highlighted
• Dates use different formats

By using Find and Replace formatting:

• Replace all bold fonts with a consistent header style
• Remove unnecessary cell fills
• Standardize date formatting

This approach saves hours compared to manual cleanup.

Alternatives to Find and Replace Formatting

In some cases, other Excel features may complement or replace formatting searches:

• Cell Styles for consistent formatting
• Format Painter for small-scale changes
• Conditional Formatting for dynamic visual rules
• Clear Formats for complete resets

Each tool serves a different purpose, but Find and Replace formatting remains unmatched for targeted bulk changes.

Conclusion

Finding and replacing formatting in Excel is a powerful yet underutilized feature that can dramatically improve the consistency, clarity, and professionalism of your spreadsheets. Whether you are cleaning imported data, standardizing reports, or correcting formatting mistakes, this tool allows you to make precise, large-scale changes efficiently.

By understanding how to access formatting options, apply replacements carefully, and follow best practices, you can take full control of how your data looks without altering the data itself. For anyone working with large or shared Excel files, mastering Find and Replace formatting is not just a convenience—it’s a productivity essential.