Was the fill pattern done manually (as opposed to Conditional Formatting)? Presumably the cells are filled that way because they meet certain criteria, whether done manually or via Conditional Formatting.... Anyway, I think you should be using Conditional Formatting based on whatever those criteria are...it should in effect "find" the desired cells and fill them with the desired.
Thanks for the reply...the cells are filled manually...the cell contents are random text. Since that is no pattern to the text I don't think there are any conditions that could be applied. In the previous version of Excel, I was able to reveal the code for the fill color...I hoped there was a similar facility for the fill pattern.