"Find" a wildcard as a place marker and "replace" with original va

[Eric]

I sometimes need to make a global change in a large group of formulas, and
need to reference a variable value in that formula as a place marker, but
leave that value in the result. Let's say I wanted to make the cell
references in a large group of formulas absolute. Every cell reference is
different of course. Assuming alpha column, numeric row, reference style, if
I just wanted to make the column letter absolute in a simple cell reference
(=C23) I could Find "=" and Replace with "=$" Resulting in "=$C23". But, as
the simplest example of this problem, what if I also want to make the row
number absolute? In that case I would want to be able to use a wildcard
character in the "Replace", with the wildcard serving as a place marker, and
with the intention being to leave the current value of that place marker.
Find "=" Replace with "=$?$" with the intended result "=$C$23", but this
formulation is not legal.
In other words, I simply need a wildcard that indicates a position in a
formula, but leaves the current value in that position unchanged in the
result.
In anything more complicated than the above example, I would need to use the
wildcard in the Find expression as well as the Replace expression, with the
same intent. I want the value represented by the wildcard to serve as an
indication of position in the formula, but I want to leave that value
unchanged in the result.
Is anyone familiar with this problem?

Thanks,
Eric

 

[Eric]

An alternative that could be useful in this situation, would be wildcards
that indicate either alpha or numeric values, but I find nothing in Excel
Help beside the generic "?" and "*".
Eric