Business Tools Blog

Have you ever needed to find something in a document or spreadsheet and not known eactly how that item is spelled?  Ex. Corporation, Corp., Corp or any 3 digit number that starts with 25

Microsoft uses wildcards to search when you aren’t certain of the exact spelling or number.

1. * is used to match any number of characters
2. ? is used to match a single character

Example -

• Type (Ctrl+F) to bring up the Find and Replace menu
• Type Corp* to find any data that starts with “Corp”.  This search would find Corp, Corporation, Corp.

Example -

• Type (Ctrl+F) to bring up the Find and Replace menu
• Type 25? to find any data that starts with 25 and has 1 more digit.  This search would find 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259
• or type 2?5 to find any data that starts with 2 and ends with 5 and has one digit between the 2 and the 5.  This search would find 205, 215, 225, etc.
• or type 2??5 to find any data that starts with 2 and ends with 5 and has two digits between the 2 and the 5.  This search would find 2005, 2105, 2325, etc.