Dave,
Sounds a little more involved than I was hoping for (I was hoping there was
simply an Option i could set, but Microsoft seems to want to protect us from
such things in Office 2007...), but I'll give it a try to see how i like it.

Thanks,
David

P.S. You're right, I'm definitely in the minority with the spelling of
Pedersen...nothing like having to spell your last name (more than once,
usually) for every person you give it to!

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

You can't change it permanently.

Saved from a previous post:

Excel tries to help by remembering the last settings you used--except for the
first search in that session.

You can use that to your advantage.

You could make a dummy workbook and put it in your xlStart folder. Have a
macro in that workbook that does a find (and sets all the stuff the way you
like). Then closes and gets out of the way.


Option Explicit
Sub auto_open()

'change the settings the way you like
Worksheets(1).Cells.Find What:="", After:=ActiveCell, _
LookIn:=xlValues, _
LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _
SearchDirection:=xlNext, MatchCase:=False

ThisWorkbook.Close savechanges:=False

End Sub

The workbook opens, does a find (to fix your settings) and then closes to get
out of the way.

If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

But if you do an Edit|Find and change anything, then those changed settings will
be remembered.

======
ps. You misspelled your last name! <vbg

David Pedersen wrote:

When I search for a value in Excel 2007 using the "find" command, I get the
Finda and Replace dialogue box with options to look in values, formulas or
comments. Almost every time, I want to search values. Is there a way to
make this the default value for the "Look in:" list box?

--

Dave Peterson