The "Find" function in Excel searches (in this order) the row below
your current cursor location and then starts at the beginning of the
sheet and goes forward to the next occurence of the search term.  I
need to search backward from my cursor location.  I have tried several
Excel tip sites and found nothing that addresses this.  Can you please
help me?

Hi carolw,

Here you go - 

Hold down the "Shift" key while clicking on the "Find Next" button.
You can also limit your search by selecting a column(s) first and then
pressing shift + find next.

Hopefully, that is what you are looking for. If not, or if I
misunderstood your question, or if you have any questions, please post
a clarification request before closing/rating my answer and I'll be
happy to reply.

Thank you,
hummer

Search Strategy:

I searched Google Groups until I came upon this one:
http://groups.google.ca/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=1272d01c415cf%24a585f610%24a601280a%40phx.gbl&rnum=6&prev=/groups%3Fq%3D%2522search%2520backwards%2522%2520%2520excel%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg

My search terms:

"search backwards"  excel
"backward find"  excel
"backward search"  excel
backward find  excel
backward find function excel
search find excel backwards

Thank you so much!  I have searched quite a few Excel tip sites and
found nothing which helped me.  This is so simple, but you just don't
know how frustrated I've been.  You are a wonderful human being! (and
so fast)

Oh good, carolw, that's terrific, I'm so glad it's just what you need.
Thank you for your nice note, rating, and tip - you are very kind.
Sincerely, hummer