search text in multiple excel files

[a_c1]

How can i search multiple excel files in different directories for a text string.
I use "Search for Files and Folders" provided by Windows OS but sometimes it works & sometimes it does not.
Can anyone please guide?
Thanks
AC

 

[Juan Pablo González]

Hi, welcome. When you are "opening" a file in Excel, you have an "Advanced" option. That allows you to search for specific files, in specific folders that have specific conditions (Lots of specifics :wink: ). One of them is to search the contents of the file.

 

[a_c1]

Hi! Thank you for your reply. That was very quick.
I have done that but it does not always work.
I use Windows 2000 OS & go to
Start -> Search -> For Files or Folders -> I enter my string in "Containing text" box but it works on some excel files & does not work on some excel files even though those files have that data.
I guess this is same as Find -> Files or Folder -> Advanced -> Containing text , that you are referring to.

 

[Juan Pablo González]

Actually, I was talking about Excel directly.

(Menu commands in Excel XP)

File | Open, Tools | Search..., you can add conditions for:

"Text or property", "File Name", "Title", and many others.

I don't know, don't think, that it uses the same "code" as Windows' find tool.

 

[Lisa0005]

We use a tool called ExcelPipe - it does search/replace across all our excel sheets. I could only find it on the web here: http://www.downloadpipe.com/ExcelPipe-Search-and-Replace-screenshot-110784.html
We use the Lite version (Pro to expensive!)

 

[ab1977]

How can i search multiple excel files in different directories for a text string.
I use "Search for Files and Folders" provided by Windows OS but sometimes it works & sometimes it does not.
Can anyone please guide?
Thanks
AC

There is a free tool to tag your files by author, item, time etc ("Tag-it"). It provides a web form to search by tags and content calling automatically Vista search function (see http://www.tag-it.eu and its help section). If you have XP you need also Windows Desktop Search who indexes all the folders you provide in configuration. The search is very precise and fast because files are indexed offline

 

[Andriusk]

I'm using IceTeaReplacer (www.icetear.com). It can search and replace and it's free.

 

[yunda]

I think TextFinding.com may help you! It is a good and useful tool to search all types of files in different directories for a text string.

 

[jroussin007]

Oscar Cronquist has a VBA module that will perform a text search in all workbooks in a particular folder.

Blog post: Search all workbooks in a folder | Get Digital Help - Microsoft Excel resource

Example workbook: http://cdn.get-digital-help.com/wp-...01/Search-multiple-workbooks-in-a-folder.xlsm