=FIND(SearchText, TextString [, StartPos])

The square brackets are documentation notation for an optional argument; they must not be entered. The English manual uses commas to separate arguments; the formulas below show that documented English syntax. Whether an installation uses localized function names or different argument separators needs confirmation in that installation. The formula itself begins with = (SoftMaker entering formulas).

What the result means: A match beginning at the ninth character returns the numeric value 9, even if StartPos was 4. StartPos chooses where to look; it does not reset the position counter to 1. SoftMaker explicitly documents FIND("a","Banana",3) → 4. The English 2026 reference does not document outcomes for fractional/zero/negative StartPos, empty search strings, Unicode surrogate pairs, or wildcard interpretation. Those cases are not claimed as natively validated here.

Enter the following data exactly in a new empty sheet. Store product codes as text so zeroes in 0052 and 0007 remain part of the identifier. Row 1 contains the headings, and the formulas below go into empty columns to the right.

Avoid adding spaces when typing the values: a leading space changes every position. All sample strings use ordinary ASCII letters, digits and hyphens so character encoding differences do not affect the hand calculations.

1. Put the six raw values in A2:A7 and the search words in B2:B7 exactly as shown.
2. Enter =FIND(B2,A2) in E2; it searches for the text in B2 inside A2.
3. Expected E2: 9, because RED begins at character 9.
4. Fill the formula down to E7, updating relative references automatically.

These are expected outcomes computed from the printed input text and SoftMaker’s case-sensitivity rules—not observations in the PlanMaker application. The explicit #VALUE! behaviour for a missing match is documented in SoftMaker’s FIND example.

In A2, the two hyphens are at positions 3 and 8:

The third row reproduces the documented starting-position behavior using a cell reference instead of a literal "Banana".

If your identifier uses the strict pattern country–four-digit item number–three-letter colour, FIND can locate delimiters without assuming that the code always begins with the same two-letter prefix. Use helper columns so errors are easy to inspect:

The middle segment starts after the first hyphen (3+1=4), and its length is the gap between hyphens minus 1 (8-3-1=4). The last formula intentionally requests more characters than remain; the official PlanMaker MID reference illustrates that MID returns the available tail in this situation. The 2048 result is text, not a numeric quantity; preserving that distinction matters for codes with leading zeroes (for US-0052-BLU, the middle part is text 0052).

Equivalent single-cell version (harder to audit):

=MID(A2,FIND("-",A2)+1,FIND("-",A2,FIND("-",A2)+1)-FIND("-",A2)-1)

Expected result for A2: 2048. This formula presumes two actual hyphens. An irregular code with a missing delimiter produces a search error, not a trustworthy parsed ID. For production data, validate the pattern first and preserve the original text.

Do not assume Excel-only edge rules. Microsoft documents particular handling of wildcards, empty text, invalid starting positions and Unicode compatibility modes; SoftMaker’s short FIND reference does not verify every one of those outcomes in PlanMaker. If those details matter for a migrated workbook, test them in its actual target edition.

Microsoft Excel also has a case-sensitive FIND with the same basic purpose; Microsoft’s current SEARCH documentation explicitly contrasts the case-insensitive SEARCH function with FIND and describes Excel-specific wildcard and Unicode compatibility behaviour. That similarity is useful for simple ASCII formulas, not proof of identical migration semantics in Excel, LibreOffice, Google Sheets, or all PlanMaker editions. Excel explicitly says its SEARCH supports ? and * wildcards; SoftMaker’s individual PlanMaker SEARCH page does not say that, so this guide does not claim PlanMaker implements them.

• Documented current support: PlanMaker 2026 English manual (FIND). The 2024 English FIND reference was also directly checked and shows the same FIND(SearchText, TextString [, StartPos]) syntax and case rule (2024 FIND).
• PlanMaker 2021: A first-party page could not be retrieved in this pass, so the 2021 argument details and historical first introduction remain unverified, not assumed absent.
• Platform/edition: No separate execution was performed on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, FreeOffice or NX. A manual being accessible does not prove every build/edition behaves identically.
• Locale: The above formulas use English names, commas and decimal-free ASCII values. Confirm regional separators and any translated names in Formula → Function on the target installation. No locale-specific execution was performed.

• SoftMaker PlanMaker — function documentation
• PlanMaker SEARCH
• SoftMaker entering formulas
• PlanMaker MID reference
• 2024 FIND
• LEN

Verification status: Official documentation checked; example outcomes were independently reasoned or arithmetically checked where applicable. Not executed in SoftMaker PlanMaker.

• No genuine SoftMaker PlanMaker screenshots are included; this guide does not use mock application images.