Office for Mac Issues

How to Find and Replace Cell Formatting and Colors in Excel for Mac

Nimra Malik Oct 19, 2026 868 views

Question details

Users need a way to search for and replace specific cell formatting, such as fill colors, in bulk on Excel for Mac.

How to Find and Replace Cell Formatting and Colors in Excel for Mac

Product: Excel for Mac
Device & OS: Mac
Scenario: Attempting to locate cells based on their background color or formatting attributes and replace them with a new format across a spreadsheet.
Observed behavior: Excel for Mac lacks the advanced format-based Find and Replace options found in the Windows version, restricting searches to cell content, values, formulas, notes, and comments only.

Before you start

Before applying bulk formatting changes using alternative methods or scripts, ensure you clearly identify the specific colors or formats you wish to alter and temporarily isolate that data to avoid unintended changes.

Solution 1Recommended

Use Filtering and Sorting to Group Colored Cells

Filter or sort your data by cell color to group them together, allowing you to manually apply new formatting in bulk.

While you cannot automatically find and replace colors, using the native Filter functionality allows you to isolate cells with a specific fill color. Once isolated, you can easily select all visible cells and change their formatting at once.

Select the data range

Highlight the range of columns and rows that contain the colored cells you want to modify.

Apply a filter

Navigate to the 'Data' tab on the Excel ribbon and click the 'Filter' icon to add drop-down arrows to your column headers.

Filter by color

Click the drop-down arrow on the relevant column header, hover over 'Filter by Color', and select the specific cell fill color you wish to find.

Replace the formatting

Select all the filtered cells that appear, go to the 'Home' tab, and apply your new desired fill color or formatting manually.

Use Filtering and Sorting to Group Colored Cells

Method Limitation: This method is highly effective for single columns but may become tedious if the colored cells are scattered randomly across numerous independent columns in a large worksheet.

Solution 2

Use a VBA Macro to Automate Color Replacement

Write and run a custom VBA script to loop through your worksheet, identify a specific background color, and replace it automatically.

Solution 3

Submit Feature Feedback to Microsoft

Report the missing feature to Microsoft developers to encourage its inclusion in future updates for Excel for Mac.

Free Microsoft Office alternative

Switch to WPS Office for a Feature-Rich Spreadsheet Experience

If Excel for Mac's missing features are slowing down your productivity, WPS Office provides a powerful, free, and lightweight alternative. WPS Spreadsheets offers an intuitive interface and robust tools, ensuring you can manage cell formatting and complex data without arbitrary OS limitations.

1. Download and Install: Visit the official WPS Office website to download the free Mac version and install it on your system.
2. Open Your Spreadsheets: Launch WPS Spreadsheets and open your existing .xlsx files directly without any formatting loss or conversion.
3. Manage Formatting Easily: Utilize WPS Spreadsheets' comprehensive toolset to locate, filter, and modify cell colors and formatting efficiently.

Advanced interface options that make managing cell formatting and colors straightforward.Seamlessly fully compatible with Microsoft Excel formats (.xlsx, .xls, .csv).Lightweight application that runs blazingly fast on macOS.Free to use with a familiar, tabbed interface for immediate productivity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the 'Format' button missing in the Find and Replace dialog on Mac?

Microsoft has not ported the advanced format-based Find and Replace functionality to the Mac version of Excel. Currently, Excel for Mac only supports finding and replacing text, values, formulas, and comments.

Can I use Conditional Formatting to replace cell colors in Excel for Mac?

Conditional formatting automatically changes cell colors based on the data values inside them, but it cannot search for manually applied static colors and replace them. It is highly useful if your color-coding is tied to specific logical rules rather than manual highlighting.

Is there a workaround to quickly strip all colors from an Excel sheet on Mac?

Yes. If you simply want to remove all cell fill colors, you can select the entire worksheet by clicking the triangle in the top-left corner (between row 1 and column A), then click the 'Fill Color' bucket icon on the Home tab and select 'No Fill'.

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