need help with Excel find function

[Libre]

For years I've been unable to understand the behavior of this vital function.
There are times that I can actually SEE what I'm searching for in a cell, yet the FIND function (ctrl + F) does NOT report it.
FIND ALL does not do it.
NONE of the FIND options (search within, match case, whole word, etc) seem to have any effect on this.
I think that (after much trial and error) if a range of cells is selected, it will only find within that range (right?)
So to counter this, I make sure I select a SINGLE cell before I hit ctrl + F yet it still fails to find the term - sometimes.
Drives me crazy and makes me mistrustful of the find function and that causes me a lot of pain.
Can anybody de-mystify this for me?
thx

ps- coworker just pointed out the Clear Find Fomat button and this solved the problem. Has this been the culpret all along? I never even set the format for the FIND in the first place.

 

[Brianwarnock]

It could easily be the culprit, how it got set if you are the sole user of the computer is the mystery, however when you use Find you will easily see if a Format option is being used or not, if not it will state

No Format Set

Brian