Searching in Excel

[Misterchipper]

I have a rather large excel document with 15 columns or so. One of the columns contains several pieces of data--i.e. each cell within the column has several listings of therapeutic areas. For example, cell c15 holds "insomnia, cholesterol, neuropathic pain" and cell c16 holds "cholesterol." However, I only want to flag each cell where cholesterol is found, not just those that solely state cholesterol."
Thoughts?

 

[MrKowz]

Highlight the column, and apply the following conditional format:

=ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Cholesterol",C1))

Then choose what formatting you want the cell to have when it finds "Cholesterol".

 

[Misterchipper]

Slightly confused...how is this formula going to work?

Additionally, what goes into cell C1?

Thank you again for your help

 

[MrKowz]

What version of Excel do you use?

 

[Misterchipper]

2010

 

[MrKowz]

I'm not familiar with how 2010's toolbar is set up (hopefully the same as 2007).

Try the following steps:

1. Highlight column C
2. In the "Home" tab of your toolbar, click on "Conditional Formatting"
3. In the "Conditional Formatting" drop menu, click "New Rule"
4. In the window that pops up, under "Select a Rule Type", choose "Use a formula to determine which cells to format"
5. Copy/paste the formula I supplied into the "Format values where this formula is true:"
6. Press the "Format" button
7. Go to the "Fill" tab and choose a color you want the cell to be filled with when it finds Cholesterol
8. Press OK
9. Press Ok