How to Set Excel's "Find All" Feature to Search Entire Workbook by Default Instead of Current Sheet?

Question

I'm trying to adjust Excel's "Find All" feature so that it searches the entire workbook by default, rather than only the current sheet. I’ve researched this and found that there are third-party tools and VBA macros that can accomplish this, but I’d prefer not to use them. One of the main reasons I’m avoiding VBA is that my Excel file is shared, and macros aren't compatible with shared workbooks.

I did come across a VBA script that essentially navigates the Excel GUI using keyboard commands to switch from sheet to workbook:

Public Sub SearchWorksheet()
    SendKeys ("^f{tab}{tab}w{enter}+{tab}+{tab}")
End Sub

Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/fd1g3o/make_searchctrlf_for_the_whole_workbook_instead/

While this workaround works, it still involves VBA. So I want to know if there is any setting in Excel itself, or perhaps a registry tweak or ADMX setting, that would allow me to set "Find All" to search the entire workbook automatically? I’d appreciate any suggestions on how to achieve this without relying on external tools or VBA code.

Answer 1

From what I know, Excel doesn’t have a built-in option, registry tweak, or ADMX policy to change the default search scope for 'Find All' from 'Within Sheet' to 'Within Workbook.' By default, Excel’s Find tool always starts in the current sheet. However, you can use third-party tools like ASAP Utilities or Kutools, which offer expanded features, including a Find and Replace tool that can search across all sheets.