How to Create a Highlighting Search Box in Excel 2016

In this HowTech written tutorial, we’re going to show you how to create a highlighting search box in Excel 2016.

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Create the search box cell and optionally edit some characteristics.

Under the Home tab, open the Conditional Formatting drop-down and click New Rule.

Choose to use a formula to determine which cells to format. Use the SEARCH formula. The first argument will be a reference to the search box, then the columns of data. Use $A2 for example to start at A2 and down the column, and use & to concatenate another column on. “=SEARCH($J$3, $A2&B2&$C2)” for example.

Click Format and choose a style.

The search box should be working, but when it’s empty it triggers all the cells. To remedy this, go back to Conditional Formatting and click Manage Rules.

Go under This Worksheet and click Edit Rule.

Use an IF statement: “=IF(ISBLANK($J$3, 0, SEARCH(…)))”. This will return 0 if the cell is blank and return the SEARCH() formula if it isn’t.

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