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A Guide to Find & Replace in Google Sheets

  • May 14
  • 2 min read

The Find and Replace tool in Google Sheets is used to locate specific text, numbers, or formulas within a spreadsheet and replace them with your new data.


In this quick guide, we’ll show you how to use Find & Replace, from basic text swaps to advanced data cleaning.


Step 1 - The quickest way to access the tool is using a keyboard shortcut:


  • Windows/ChromeOS: Ctrl + H

  • Mac: Cmd + Shift + H


You can also access it via the top menu and select Edit > Find and replace.


Menu from a spreadsheet titled "Internal 2026 CloudShed Schedule" with options like Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, and Find and Replace highlighted.

Step 2 - A box will pop up, and you will see the main fields 'Find' where you will enter the text or number you want to locate and 'Replace with' is where you will put what you would like to swap the find box data for.


In the example below, I am asking it to find the word 'Hold' and change it to 'Confirmed'.


Find and replace dialog in a spreadsheet showing "Hold" being replaced with "Confirmed". Options like "Match case" are unchecked.

Step 3 - The advanced options are below this, where you can specify where to look for the data: all sheets, this sheet, or a specific range. I have selected 'This sheet' from the drop-down above to just swap in the current sheet I am in.


Step 4 - Continuing with the advanced options


Match case - by default, the searches are not case sensitive, so if I searched hold and Hold, it would see it as the same and replace both lower and upper case. If you want it to match the case, select 'match case'.


Checkbox options for search criteria include match case, entire cell contents, regular expressions with help link, within formulae, and links.

Match entire cell contents - this is an important one; if you only want to change words that match exactly and don't just include part of the word, select this option.


Also search within formulae - Google Sheets only looks at the result displayed in a cell. If you need to update a specific part of a calculation (like changing a cell reference or a tax rate inside a formula), check this box.


Step 5 - Your final step is to:

  • Find: Takes you to the next instance of your search term so you can review it.

  • Replace: Swaps the current highlighted instance.

  • Replace all: Swaps every single instance in your chosen range.


Toolbar with buttons: Find, Replace, Replace all, and Done. "Done" button is highlighted in green, indicating completion.

Find and Replace is more than just a typo fixer; it’s a data-cleaning tool. Next time you're faced with a repetitive editing task, remember Ctrl + H and let Google Sheets do the heavy lifting for you. We use this a lot when updating weeks of data for our internal schedule.


And remember, if anything goes wrong, you have Version History to go back in time to fix any mistakes!


To learn more about Google Sheets, book a live training session with Cloudshed. 

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