Hi!

thanks a lot. They both worked!

=SEARCH("TODO",$A1&$B1&$C1&D1)0
=SUMPRODUCT(--(ISNUMBER(FIND("TODO",1:1))))0

The second one does not need to specify the range and works with the entire
row.

I've got 3 more ?s if I may:

1) Is there a way to use the first 'SEARCH' approach and instead of
enumerating the columns just specify the entire column? Or at least an
interval, e.g. $A1:$H1. I've tried this, but it did not work.

2) Now if I need (for other purpose) to highlight only that single cell
containing the specific text, should not there be a simple 'cell value is'
condition with a wild chars e.g. '?TODO?'.

3) BTW, how does one escape the special char to be a 'question-mark' and not
the wild-char?

Thanks a lot for the second time!
--Josef