When organizing Excel spreadsheets, many people encounter issues with cells containing fixed suffixes, abbreviation markers, or repetitive keywords. Manually deleting them one by one is not only slow but also prone to omission. This article, based on the actual interface of the office software " HeSoft Doc Batch Tool ", demonstrates how to use wildcards/regular expressions to batch delete keywords in Excel and perform unified processing across multiple files. You will see a comparison of the effects before and after processing, learn how to import spreadsheet files such as xlsx and xls, how to set the scope for cell text processing, how to enter a lookup formula and leave the replacement content empty to achieve deletion, thereby efficiently cleaning data and reducing repetitive work.
When processing Excel data, a common type of inefficient work is: certain suffixes, abbreviations, or markers repeatedly appear in a column of content, such as "WKB", "BL" at the end of product names, which need to be uniformly deleted. Relying solely on manual find and replace is not only time-consuming within a single sheet, but also prone to errors when dealing with multiple xlsx, xls workbooks. What this article aims to resolve is the issue of using wildcard regular expressions to batch delete keywords in Excel, and it details the specific operation process in conjunction with the actual interface of the office software HeSoft Doc Batch Tool .
Through this type of batch processing office software, you can turn tasks that originally required repetitive cell-by-cell, file-by-file operations into a one-time configuration and batch execution. It is particularly suitable for people who often organize product lists, customer data, material names, and exported reports.
Applicable Scenarios
This method is very suitable if you encounter the following situations:
- Excel cell text ends with uniform abbreviations that need to be batch deleted.
- The same type of keywords are distributed across multiple sheets and multiple Excel files.
- You need to delete based on rules, not just delete one specific fixed full word.
- You want to process spreadsheet files like xlsx, xls to reduce repetitive work.
From the example screenshot, the Item Name column in the table contains texts like "Long-grain rice, parboiled, WKB", "Round-grain rice, BL", "Wheat flour, WKB". The goal is not to delete the entire content, but only to delete the keyword marker at the end and its preceding separator space, retaining the main name.
Effect Preview
Before Processing
Before processing, Excel cells contain various suffix markers, for example:
- Long-grain rice, parboiled, WKB
- Round-grain rice, BL
- Wheat flour, WKB
These keywords appear to have inconsistent lengths, but they all occur at the end of the text and are preceded by a comma and a space.
After Processing
After processing, the suffix keywords are uniformly deleted, resulting in:
- Long-grain rice, parboiled
- Round-grain rice
- Wheat flour
In other words, the software does not simply clear the entire cell content, but only deletes the matched text part according to the set wildcard or regex rules.
Operation Steps
Step 1: Enter the Excel Keyword Find & Replace Function
As seen in the screenshot, after selecting "Excel Tools" on the left side of HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , there is "Find and Replace Keywords in Excel" in the homepage feature list. The purpose of this step is to enter the module specifically designed for finding, replacing, and deleting Excel content.
Expected result: After entering the function page, you will see a multi-step interface for importing files, setting processing options, and starting processing.
Step 2: Add Excel Files for Batch Processing
After entering the function page, there are "Add Files" and "Import Files from Folder" buttons at the top of the interface. The screenshot shows multiple xlsx files have been imported, with information like name, path, extension, creation time, and modification time visible in the list.
The purpose of this step is to import the Excel files to be processed into the software at once, facilitating subsequent unified rule execution.
If you have only a few files, you can click "Add Files"; if you need to process multiple xls, xlsx files in one directory at once, using "Import Files from Folder" is more efficient.
Expected result: Imported files will be displayed in the record list. After confirming they are correct, click "Next Step" at the bottom to enter the settings page.
Step 3: Set Processing Scope to Cell Text
On the "Set Processing Options" page, the screenshot shows "Cell Text" is checked. This indicates the processing target is the text content within Excel cells, not sheet names or text on shapes.
The purpose of this step is to ensure the software only acts on the data area that truly needs cleaning.
Additionally, from the screenshot, you can also see:
- The cell formula type for processing is set to "Only process cells without formulas";
- The cell data type to process has "Text" checked.
These settings are very practical because many Excels contain both formula cells and plain text cells. The current case is about deleting keywords from names, so processing only text is safer.
Expected result: The software will lock the processing scope to text cells, reducing the risk of unintended modifications.
Step 4: Choose Fuzzy Find Mode, Enter Wildcard/Regex
This is the most critical step in the entire operation. According to the screenshot, in the "Set Keyword Options" area, the find method is set to "Use formula for fuzzy text search", not "Exact text search".
In the "Keyword List to Find" on the left, the input is:
,\s+[A-Z]+$
The meaning of this expression can be broken down as follows:
- ,: Matches a comma;
- \s+: Matches one or more whitespace characters after the comma;
- [A-Z]+: Matches one or more uppercase English letters, such as WKB, BL;
- $: Limits the match position to the end of the cell text.
Combined, this rule matches: suffix keywords like ", WKB" and ", BL" at the end of a cell.
The purpose of this step is not to hard-code a single specific word, but to let the software delete all keywords matching the pattern at once, suitable for situations where various abbreviations exist in the data.
Expected result: The software will search for text segments matching this rule at the end of each cell.
Step 5: Leave Replacement Content Blank to Achieve "Delete" Effect
On the right side of the screenshot is the "Replacement Keyword List" area, with a prompt "Leaving it blank means deletion". That means, no replacement text needs to be filled in here; keep it empty.
The purpose of this step is to directly delete the "found content" instead of replacing it with other characters.
For the example in this article, leaving it blank means the software will directly remove the matched content like ", WKB", ", BL" at the end.
Expected result: The matched keywords disappear from the cell text, leaving only the main content in front.
Step 6: Proceed to Next Step and Execute Batch Processing
After completing the find rules and replacement settings, click the "Next Step" button at the bottom of the page to enter the subsequent save location and start processing stages. Although the screenshot doesn't fully show the final execution interface, the top process flow indicates there are still "Set Save Location" and "Start Processing" steps remaining.
The purpose of this step is to confirm the output method and formally execute the batch deletion operation.
Expected result: The software batch processes the imported Excel files according to the set rules and outputs the result files with the keywords deleted.
Why This Expression Can Batch Delete Suffix Keywords
When many users search for "Excel wildcard delete text", "Excel regex replace", or "Excel batch delete keywords", the real difficulty isn't which button to click, but how to write the rule.
The expression ,\s+[A-Z]+$ in this article's example is suitable for the current scenario because it captures three characteristics:
- The keyword is preceded by a comma;
- The keyword is an uppercase English abbreviation;
- The keyword appears at the end of the text.
Therefore, it doesn't arbitrarily delete normal content in the middle, but more precisely targets the suffix markers. It is particularly practical for cleaning product names, removing material code suffixes, and deleting classification labels.
Common Questions or Notes
1. Does this delete fixed words or delete by rules?
Judging from the screenshot settings, "Use formula for fuzzy text search" is used here, which is essentially matching and deleting by rules, not limited to one specific fixed word. Thus, it is more flexible than simple exact replacement.
2. Why choose "Cell Text"?
Because this example deals with text content in worksheets. If your goal is to delete keywords in sheet names or text within graphic objects, you need to adjust the processing scope based on the actual scenario. The current screenshot explicitly checks Cell Text.
3. Why is it recommended to only process text cells?
If a table contains a mix of numbers, dates, and formula results, recklessly processing everything could affect the original data. The practice in the screenshot is to only check the Text data type and select Only process cells without formulas, which is more suitable for data cleaning scenarios.
4. What happens if the replacement content is left blank?
According to the interface prompt, Leaving it blank means deletion. This is the most core setting for batch deleting keywords in Excel.
5. Which Excel formats are suitable for processing?
As seen from the file list example in the interface, the currently imported files are xlsx. Typically, the Excel processing scenarios of such office software are mainly oriented towards common spreadsheet formats like xlsx and xls; if you want to batch process multiple workbooks, it is more efficient to import them centrally using the same rules first.
Summary
If you want to efficiently complete tasks like Excel batch delete keywords, Excel wildcard delete text, or Excel regex replace and delete, using professional office software is far more time-saving than manual cell-by-cell modification. Batch processing office software like HeSoft Doc Batch Tool can string together the process of "importing multiple Excel files - setting text scope - inputting matching rules - leaving replacement blank to delete - unified output" into a standard workflow, especially suitable for highly repetitive data cleaning tasks.
If your spreadsheet also has situations like "main name body + suffix abbreviation marker", it is recommended to follow the steps in this article directly: first import xls or xlsx files, then use a rule similar to ,\s+[A-Z]+$ to test a batch of sample files. After confirming the results meet expectations, batch process the official files, which can significantly reduce repetitive work and improve Excel data organization efficiency.