In Excel: press Ctrl+F, click Options, set Within to Workbook, then click Find All to list every hit with its sheet and cell address.
On this page7
Press Ctrl+F anywhere in the workbook.
Click Options>> to expand the extra settings.
Set Within to Workbook.
Set Look in to Values when the text you want is produced by a formula, or leave it on Formulas to search the formula text itself.
Click Find All rather than Find Next — the result grid can be sorted by clicking its column headers.
What this does
Find looks only at the active sheet until you tell it otherwise. The Options panel exposes three settings that decide what a search actually covers: Within (Sheet or Workbook), Search (By Rows or By Columns) and Look in — Formulas searches the text you typed into cells, Values searches what is displayed after calculation, and Comments searches notes. Before you run it on a workbook other people depend on, try it on a copy or a few rows first. Undo only reaches back through the current session, so a quick trial run is the cheapest way to see exactly what will change before the file is saved and shared. The difference between a quick fix and a sheet you can trust is the extra minute you spend validating “search all sheet in excel”. Start on a copy or a tiny sample, keep the affected sheet visible, and compare the result with the tool above before you touch the real workbook. When this is a ribbon command, the selection matters more than the button: confirm the range, apply the command, then spot-check the output before saving. The point is a layout choice that keeps the sheet readable and sortable, but the practical win is that someone else can open the file and understand what happened without asking you.
A worked example
An invoice number appears somewhere across fourteen monthly tabs. Ctrl+F, type INV-2291, click Options, set Within to Workbook and Look in to Values, then Find All. The result list shows three rows — Jun!D204, Aug!D19 and Summary!B7 — and clicking any line jumps straight to that cell. Multi-tab workbooks hide their oldest mistakes on the sheet nobody opens, and a sheet-scoped search is what lets them stay hidden. If this is something you do often, add the command to the Quick Access Toolbar (right-click it on the ribbon and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar) or learn its shortcut, so next time it is one click instead of a hunt through the menus.
In Google Sheets
This is a command rather than a formula, so there is no syntax to carry over. Google Sheets arranges its commands in menus across the top instead of a ribbon, names some of them differently and does not have every Excel command — look for the equivalent in the Sheets menus or its help before assuming the steps match. Nothing on this page is behind a login or a download: the exact answer is at the top, and the detail below it is there for when you need it. That is the whole promise here — the answer first, and just enough context to make it stick. If you take one thing from this page on “search all sheet in excel”, make it the order of checks rather than the individual clicks: confirm what is selected, apply the step, and look at the result before moving on. That small routine is what keeps Excel work predictable when the same task comes back in a slightly different workbook.
Common mistakes
- Leaving Within on Sheet and concluding the value is not in the file.
- Searching for a displayed number such as 1,250 while Look in is set to Formulas, where the underlying value is 1250 with no separator.
- Leaving "Match entire cell contents" ticked from a previous search, which silently rejects every partial hit.
- Forgetting that a search runs on whichever sheets are grouped; ungroup first with a right-click ▸ Ungroup Sheets.
Frequently asked questions
How do I search all tabs at once?
Ctrl+F ▸ Options ▸ Within: Workbook. The same setting exists on the Replace tab, so a workbook-wide replace works the same way.
Why can Excel not find a number I can clearly see?
The cell displays a rounded or formatted version. Switch Look in to Values, or search for the underlying figure.
Can I search several workbooks at once?
Not with Find. Open each file, or load the folder with Power Query and search the combined table.
What does Find All give me that Find Next does not?
A list of every match with sheet, cell, value and formula, which you can sort — useful for auditing where a hard-coded value was used.
Other ways people ask this
This is also commonly searched as “find all the off sheet refereces in excel”, “set excel sheet cover all data”, “all excel formulas with examples in excel sheet download” and “how to search for name in excel sheet”. They describe the identical operation, so you are in the right place no matter how you phrased it.
Why do people search for this in so many different ways?
Because the same task has many names. “find all the off sheet refereces in excel”, “set excel sheet cover all data”, “all excel formulas with examples in excel sheet download” all point at the one operation explained on this page, which is why they all lead here.