How to Use Google to Search for Microsoft Excel Documents

Google gives you the option of keywords searching in various format. One such option is a Microsoft Excel or .xls document. Here’s how you can use Google to search for Microsoft Excel documents.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Go to the Google search homepage, www.google.com.
2. Click on the Advanced Features link beside the search box.
3. Select the Microsoft Excel (.xls) file format in the File Format section.
4. Alternatively, you can specify the preference directly in the search box. For example, if you want to search for the keyword pricing in Excel files, your search key should be pricing filetype:xls.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the quotes operator if your keyword contains more than one word. For instance, “pricing sheet” filetype:xls. Without the quotes you would get a listing of all .xls files with any or all of the words.