"Josef Vosyka" wrote in message
...
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.

Best formula, better than my first attempt is

=COUNTIF(1:1,"*TODO*")0

1:1 can be a subset like A1:H1

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?'.

Use your original approach, CF with a formula of

=FIND("TODO,A1)

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

Put the quotation mark in another cell, and test against that.