How to Search in Google Sheets on PC or Mac

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: February 26, 2018 Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to search the contents of a spreadsheet for a word, phrase, number or character on Google Sheets, using a desktop internet browser.

Steps

1
Open Google Sheets in your internet browser. Type sheets.google.com into your browser's address bar, and hit ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return on your keyboard.
- If you're not automatically signed in, enter your email address or phone number, click NEXT, enter your password, and click NEXT again.
2
Click a spreadsheet on your saved files list. Find the spreadsheet you want to search, and open it.

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3
Press the search combination on your keyboard. This will open the search box in the upper-right corner of your spreadsheet.
- On Windows, press Control+F.
- On Mac, press ⌘ Command+F.
4
Enter your search phrase. You can enter a keyword, number, symbol, or multiple words into the search field here. All matching cells will be highlighted on your spreadsheet.
5
Press the
and
icons to see the next match. These buttons are located next to the search field in the upper-right corner. They will help you jump to the next matching cell.
- Alternatively, you can press ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return on your keyboard. They function the same as the
  button.
6
Click the three dots icon next to the search field. This will open your advanced search options in a new pop-up window.
7
Click the Find button. This will search the spreadsheet for your search phrase, and highlight the next matching cell.