When multiple Excel tables contain the same old categories, old warehouse names, or business keywords, searching and replacing by opening files one by one is not only time-consuming but also prone to missing changes. This article uses "replacing Stationery with Office supplies, and replacing Warehouse C with Warehouse B and highlighting" as an example to introduce how to use HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to batch find and replace keywords in multiple xlsx spreadsheet files, while highlighting the replaced cells for easy review and delivery.
In daily office scenarios such as inventory lists, customer data, quotation sheets, and project ledgers, Excel files often have batches of the same type of text that need adjustment. For example, a company might uniformly change the product category from "Stationery" to "Office supplies", or adjust the warehouse name from "Warehouse C" to "Warehouse B". If there is only one table, this can be done using Excel's built-in find and replace function; but if there are dozens or even hundreds of xlsx and xls spreadsheet files, opening, finding, and replacing in each one individually is not only very time-consuming but also prone to omissions, incorrect changes, and difficulties with quick verification.
The core problem this article aims to solve is: How to batch find and replace keywords in many Excel spreadsheet files and highlight the replaced content for easy subsequent inspection. The office software used here is HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , which is positioned as a batch processing software for office files like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, text, and images. Its core value lies in reducing repetitive operations and improving file processing efficiency. The following content, combined with screenshots, will fully demonstrate the operation process from selecting the tool, importing Excel files, setting find and replace keywords, to enabling the highlight function after replacement.
Applicable Scenarios: Which Excel batch replacement tasks are suitable for this method?
Batch finding, replacing Excel keywords, and highlighting them is suitable for all office scenarios where "the same text exists in multiple tables and needs to be uniformly modified". Especially when the number of files is large, the table structures are similar, and the replacement rules are clear, using a batch processing tool is significantly more efficient than manual processing.
Common scenarios include:
- Inventory list category adjustment: Batch replace old category names in multiple inventory lists with new ones, for example, replacing "Stationery" with "Office supplies".
- Warehouse, store, or department name changes: Uniformly change "Warehouse C" to "Warehouse B" in tables, or replace old department names with new ones.
- Batch standardization of customer data: Unify fields like customer level, region, and channel name to avoid multiple spellings in different files.
- Batch revision of quotations, orders, and project ledgers: When product names, specification descriptions, or project statuses need a unified update, multiple xlsx files can be processed at once.
- Scenarios requiring post-replacement review: The need is not only to change content but also to quickly locate replaced cells using a yellow background highlight for manual checking.
Compared to simple replacement, "highlighting after replacement" is very suitable for office workflows with high accuracy requirements. After batch processing is complete, users can directly open the result file and confirm which cells were modified through the highlighted areas, reducing subsequent verification costs.
Effect Preview: Changes in the Excel table before and after processing
Before Processing: Multiple keywords scattered in different cells
As seen in the Excel screenshot before processing, this is a product inventory list with fields including Product ID, Product Name, Category, Status, Location, etc. The keywords to be processed are distributed in different columns; for example, "Stationery" appears multiple times in the Category column, and "Warehouse C" appears in the Location column. This content is not in a continuous, single location in the table but scattered across different record rows.
If the same modification needs to be done in multiple Excel files, manual operation usually requires opening each file individually, using the find function to locate "Stationery" and "Warehouse C", replacing them separately, and then manually setting the fill color for the replaced cells. Once the number of files increases, this process becomes a typical repetitive task.
After Processing: Keywords have been replaced and marked with highlights for easy inspection
In the effect after processing, the original "Stationery" has been replaced with "Office supplies", and the original "Warehouse C" has been replaced with "Warehouse B". More importantly, the replaced cells are highlighted with a yellow background, so when users open the result table, they can see at a glance which content has changed.
This effect is especially valuable for batch processing a large number of Excel files. Because replacement itself is only the first step; many office workflows also require verifying whether the data is correct. Highlighting is equivalent to adding a visual mark to all replaced locations, facilitating both inspection and communication about the scope of changes with colleagues.
Operation Steps: Using office software to batch find and replace Excel keywords and highlight them
The following introduces how to complete batch find and replace in HeSoft Doc Batch Tool following the order of the operation screenshots. The demonstration scenario is: replacing "Stationery" with "Office supplies" and "Warehouse C" with "Warehouse B" in multiple Excel files, and highlighting the replaced content.
Step 1: Enter the Excel tool and select "Find and Replace Keywords in Excel"
After opening HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , select "Excel Tools" in the left function category. The main interface of the software will display multiple function cards related to Excel batch processing, such as Excel Add Password Protection, Excel Remove Password Protection, Excel to PDF, Excel to Word, etc. Here, you need to click the first function: "Find and Replace Keywords in Excel".
The purpose of this step is to enter the task page specifically for find and replace operations on content within Excel files. Since we are dealing with text inside spreadsheet files, not file names, folder names, or format conversions, we need to select the find and replace function under Excel Tools.
After entering this function, the subsequent process will unfold around several stages: "Select records to process," "Set processing options," "Set save location," and "Start processing." From the interface, it seems the software has broken the batch processing workflow into step-by-step operations, which is suitable for general office users not familiar with complex scripts or Excel VBA.
Step 2: Add the Excel files to be batch processed
After entering the "Find and Replace Keywords in Excel" page, you first arrive at the "Select records to process" step. In the screenshot, you can see two main buttons at the top of the page, "Add File" and "Import Files from Folder," along with operation entries like "Clear" and "More" on the right.
If you only need to process a few specific Excel files, you can click "Add File" and select the required xlsx files one by one. If the files are all concentrated in the same folder, it is more recommended to click "Import Files from Folder", which can import all Excel files from the folder into the task list at once, avoiding repeated selection.
After the import is complete, the files will be displayed in a list on the page. In the screenshot, you can see the list includes columns such as Number, Name, Path, Extension, Creation Time, Modification Time, and Operations. The file extension is shown as xlsx. Through this list, users can confirm which files will be processed this time and can also delete unnecessary records through the Operations column.
The expected result of this step is: All Excel files requiring batch find and replace have appeared in the task list. After confirming there are no errors, click "Next" at the bottom of the page to enter the keyword replacement rule setting stage.
Step 3: Set the find method and matching rules
On the "Set Keyword Options" page, you first need to choose the find method. The screenshot shows two options: "Exact Text Find" and "Formula Fuzzy Text Find". In this example, "Exact Text Find" was chosen.
Exact text find is suitable when you clearly know the old keyword content, such as looking for the exact "Stationery" or "Warehouse C". Choosing exact find can reduce the risk of incorrect replacement caused by unexpected matches. For most office scenarios, like name changes, category adjustments, or warehouse field updates, exact find is usually safer.
In the additional options, the screenshot shows that "Ignore Case" and "Match whole word only" have been checked. These two options serve different purposes:
- Ignore Case: When the table might contain different capitalizations like Stationery, stationery, or STATIONERY, checking this allows for unified identification and reduces missed searches.
- Match whole word only: This is used to avoid matching only a part of a word, reducing the probability of incorrect replacement. For example, it helps when you only want to replace the complete word and not a segment of characters within another long word.
These matching rules will directly affect the accuracy of the batch replacement. It is recommended to confirm before setting whether the keywords need to be case-sensitive and if they must be complete matches. For business fields or standard names, checking "Match whole word only" can usually make the replacement more controllable.
Step 4: Fill in the list of keywords to find and the corresponding list of replacement keywords
On the same page, the left area is the "List of keywords to find", and the right area is the "List of keywords to replace with". In the screenshot, two lines are filled in on the left: the first line is "Stationery", the second line is "Warehouse C"; correspondingly, two lines are filled in on the right: the first line is "Office supplies", the second line is "Warehouse B".
It is crucial to pay attention to the one-to-one correspondence: The keyword on the left's 1st line will be replaced by the content on the right's 1st line, and the left's 2nd line will be replaced by the right's 2nd line. In other words, the rules for this batch actually mean:
- Find "Stationery", replace with "Office supplies";
- Find "Warehouse C", replace with "Warehouse B".
If you need to process more keywords at once, you can continue filling in by line. For example, fill in an old department name on the 3rd line on the left and the new department name on the 3rd line on the right; fill in an old product model on the 4th line on the left and the new product model on the 4th line on the right. As long as the line numbers and meanings correspond between the left and right sides, multiple groups of Excel keyword batch replacements can be completed at once.
For scenarios where certain text needs to be deleted, the interface also prompts that the "List of keywords to replace with" area "leaving it blank means deletion". This means if no replacement content is filled in for a find keyword on the right side, the software will process it by deleting that keyword. However, the goal of this article is to replace and highlight, so the example fills in the new replacement text on the right side for all entries.
Step 5: Enable "Highlight replaced content"
In the "Other Settings" area at the bottom of the page, you can see the "Highlight replaced content" option. The screenshot emphasizes this switch with a red box; it is the key to the effect described in this article: after the batch replacement is complete, the replaced cells will be displayed with a highlight.
The purpose of enabling this option is to make the replacement results easier to review. For batch processing of many Excel files, it is impossible for a user to find and confirm each change one by one as they would with a single file. The highlight helps users quickly locate the modified positions after opening the file, which is especially suitable for submission for supervisor review, inspection before delivery to a client, or explaining the scope of changes within a team.
Looking at the processed screenshot, you can see that the cells where "Office supplies" and "Warehouse B" have been replaced are filled with yellow, making the visual effect very clear. This way, even if the table has many rows, you can quickly discover the positions that were changed in the batch replacement.
Step 6: Continue to the next step and execute the batch processing
After setting the keyword list and highlight options, click "Next" at the bottom of the page. According to the interface flow, the subsequent steps will go to "Set Save Location" and "Start Processing", among others. Although the screenshots do not show the save location page, it can be reasonably inferred from the process text that the user needs to confirm the output location in the next steps and then start the batch processing task.
It is recommended to confirm the following points before officially starting processing:
- Are all the Excel files in the task list the ones that need to be processed this time?
- Do the find keywords on the left correspond line by line with the replacement keywords on the right?
- Has the highlight after replacement option been turned on?
- Are there important original files that need to be backed up in advance?
Once everything is confirmed, start processing. The software will execute the find and replace on the imported multiple Excel files according to the settings and generate the processed results. After completion, open the result file, and you will see that the keywords have been replaced and the relevant cells are highlighted.
Common Questions and Precautions
1. Why is using "Exact Text Find" recommended?
When the content to be replaced is a clear business name, category name, warehouse name, or fixed field value, exact find is safer. It can avoid incorrect replacements caused by fuzzy matching. For example, if you only want to replace "Warehouse C", you wouldn't want to replace other content containing similar characters but with different meanings.
2. Must the left and right keyword lists correspond one-to-one?
Yes. Batch replacement rules typically correspond by line. The keyword on a specific line number on the left will be replaced by the content on the same line number on the right. Therefore, when filling in multiple sets of rules, pay special attention to whether the line numbers correspond to avoid replacing keyword A with the result intended for rule B.
3. What is the practical function of the highlight display?
Highlighting is primarily used for review. After batch processing is complete, users can open the Excel file and directly see which cells were changed. Especially when processing dozens of tables, the highlight can significantly reduce the cost of inspection and avoid not knowing where the software made changes.
4. Can xls files be processed?
The files imported in the screenshot example are xlsx. The topic of the article is batch keyword replacement in Excel tables, and usually, Excel files can include xlsx, xls, and other formats. In actual use, it is recommended to rely on the file types that the software interface supports for import and recognition. If it can be imported normally and the extension is displayed in the list, proceed with the processing.
5. Do I need to back up files before batch replacement?
Backup is recommended. Batch replacement is an operation that modifies the content of multiple files, and if the keyword rules are filled in incorrectly, it might affect many files. In actual office work, you can first copy a test folder, and once you confirm the rules and effects are correct, process the official files.
Summary: Reduce repetitive Excel modification work with batch processing tools
Batch finding and replacing keywords in Excel files seems like a simple operation, but as the number of files increases, keyword rules become more numerous, and highlighting is needed for review, manual processing will consume a lot of time. As office software, HeSoft Doc Batch Tool provides a batch find and replace function for Excel files, integrating "importing multiple files, setting multiple replacement rules, enabling post-replace highlighting, and executing unified processing" into one workflow.
Through the example in this article, users can achieve batch replacement of "Stationery" with "Office supplies" and "Warehouse C" with "Warehouse B" in multiple xlsx tables, and highlight the replaced cells. This processing method not only improves efficiency but also facilitates review, making it particularly suitable for Excel files requiring unified revision, such as inventory checklists, business ledgers, customer data, and quotation sheets.
If you are facing repetitive find and replace tasks across many Excel tables, it is recommended to first organize the folder to be processed and the keyword correspondence table, and then use a batch processing software to complete the operation in one go. This can compress the mechanical work that originally required processing files one by one into a standardized process that can be completed in minutes.