How to replace numerous cells at 1 time to "a" within a specified area?

[Lewis Koh]

Hi,

I want to replace Cells that contains text within the Box to the letter "a".
Contents outside of the box need to be kept unchange Is that possible?

[teylyn]

Hit Ctrl-H to open the find and replace dialog.

In the Find what box type a *
in the Replace with box type your a
hit Replace All

[Lewis Koh]

Hi, looks like it just look for a and letters after a and replace them with a single a. The results were some cells are not a single "a". It also replaces all text in the sidenotes below. Can I just replace the cells that has texts inbetween the grey rows?

[teylyn]

Pardon?

In the Find What box type a

*

in the Replace With box type a

a

Hit Replace All. Now all text will be replaced with "a"

If that is not what you want, please specify your requirements. Maybe a look in the help files could save you a trip to Excelforum.

[Lewis Koh]

oh sorry, I misunderstand the a * as "a*". Ok, I got the * replacement, but I need to keep things outside of the grey rows and data. Example: there is a note below the Grey rows. I like to keep those notes there instead of being replaced by "a"s.

[teylyn]

Look, your question was:

Is it possible to replace all the test in the test.xls with "a" without manually typing into all the cells?

If that's not what you want to do, then please describe what you really want to do before sending people off to find you solutions that you don't want.

I'm not willing to spend more time on this, since you apparently don't take care to phrase your request. So why should I waste more time? I'm out.

[Lewis Koh]

Hi, I'm sorry if my English is bad. Please let me try again. I have edited the Title and rephrased my question in my first post.

[teylyn]

Select the cells in the box.
Hit F5
Click Special
tick "Constants"
Hit OK,

then do the find and replace as described above.

[Lewis Koh]

Thanks teylyn! You are the best!!!