# Excel 2003 "Find And Replace" Help

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-2003-find-and-replace-help/668854>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 14, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-2003-find-and-replace-help/668854 "2013-09-14T17:27:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-2003-find-and-replace-help/668854/1 "2013-09-14T17:27:20Z")

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I’m trying to make a macro to assist me with my football pool. What I’d like to do it is have the macro look for the text in a portion of a cell, and then replace the entire cell with new text. For example, column A might have the following:

```auto

Game_1: @New England (1-0) 
Game_2: @Atlanta (0-1) 
Game_3: @Buffalo (0-1) 
Game_4: @Chicago (1-0) 
Game_5: @Green Bay (0-1) 
Game_6: @Indianapolis (1-0) 
Game_7: @Kansas City (1-0) 
Game_8: @Baltimore (0-1) 
Game_9: @Houston (1-0) 
Game_10: @Philadelphia (1-0) 
Game_11: @Arizona (0-1) 
Game_12: @Tampa Bay (0-1) 
Game_13: @Oakland (0-1) 
Game_14: @NY Giants (0-1) 
Game_15: @Seattle (1-0) 
Game_16: @Cincinnati (0-1) 
TotalScore: 22 

```

I’d like for the macro to search for “England”, and then replace that entire first cell with “NE”. Then search for “Atlanta”, and replace that entire cell with “ATL”, and so on down the line.

Here’s the problem – when using the Find & Replace tool, you have the option to “Match entire cell contents”. If I have that checked off, then searching for “England” brings back no results (since there is more than just the word “England” in the cell). But if I _don’t_ check it off, then the cell “Game\_1: @New England (1-0)” becomes “Game\_1: @New NE (1-0)”.

Anyone have an idea how I can make the “Match entire cell contents” command only apply to the “replace”, but not the “find”?

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**Author:** ![Snerky\_Snerk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Snerky\_Snerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snerky_Snerk)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-2003-find-and-replace-help/668854/2 "2013-09-14T20:10:02Z")

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Keep ‘match entire cell contents’ checked, and use wildcard search - put the \* where any other text may appear.  
For your example, _England_ would work as the find term.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-2003-find-and-replace-help/668854/3 "2013-09-14T21:44:30Z")

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> [@Snerky\_Snerk](#):
>
> Keep ‘match entire cell contents’ checked, and use wildcard search - put the \* where any other text may appear.  
> For your example, _England_ would work as the find term.

Woot! That did the trick – much obliged.