search non active sheet

Good Afternoon,

I have this code
Set target = Sheets("Database").Cells.Find(What:=EmNum, After:=ActiveCell, LookIn:=xlFormulas, _
LookAt:=xlWhole, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:=xlNext, _
MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False)

and it is working fine if I want to search an the entire sheet, but I would only like to search 3 columns J-N. I change the above code to this

Set target = Sheets("Database").Columns ("J:N.Find(What:=EmNum, After:=ActiveCell, LookIn:=xlFormulas, _
LookAt:=xlWhole, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:=xlNext, _
MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False)

I also tried this

Set target = Sheets("Database").Range ("J1:N1000").Find(What:=EmNum, After:=ActiveCell, LookIn:=xlFormulas, _
LookAt:=xlWhole, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:=xlNext, _
MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False)

neither would find the number I was looking for. The first one does. For example I was searching for N12698. The first code finds it but if I try to just narrow into the 3 columns the target variable comes back as empty.

I would appreciate any thoughts anyone would have on this.

Thank you

Thanks for the reply. I tried it without the After:=ActiveCell and this did not make a difference. The problem with you second suggestion is that the macro would record it as a selection on an active sheet. it would look something like this

Columns("L:N").Select

I cannot use a select command on a non active sheet.

again, thank you for the response. it was a good thought!

Marvin,

Thank you for the reply. I am confused though. I am using worksheets("database") in my code and not just columns.select. Additionally, I do not believe I can even use the .select command as this is a non active sheet and to select something the sheet needs to be activated.
My goal in this is to search just columns J:N on the database sheet and nothing else on this non active sheet. I apologize if I did not make this clear. The iteration of the code I posted works, but it searches the entire database sheet and not just columns J:N.