Hi Preacherman

You can achieve what you want without a macro, if you have Word 2002 or
2003. To do that, select the whole table. Use Edit > Find. In the Find What
box, type your "XX" text. Tick the "Highlight all items found in" box (which
should say "Current selection"). Click Find All, and then Close. You'll see
that Word has selected all cells containing "XX". Now, use Format > Borders
and Shading to shade the cells.

However, if you need a macro to do this, you could use the following code.
You'll need to change XX to the text you need to find.

Sub FindTextInATableAndShadeCell()
' Posted to microsoft.public.word.tables newsgroup
' Shauna Kelly 15/8/2004.

Dim oCell As Cell
Dim sTextToFind As String

If Selection.Information(wdWithInTable) = False Then
   MsgBox "Cursor is not currently in a table"
Else

   sTextToFind = "XX"

   'Find cells in the current table that contain
   'sTextToFind, and shade the cell
   Selection.Tables(1).Select
   With Selection.Find
       .ClearFormatting
       .Text = sTextToFind
       .Wrap = wdFindStop
       Do While .Execute
           Selection.Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColorIndex =
wdGray25
       Loop
   End With
End If
End Sub

If you're not sure what to do with the macro, see

http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm and

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/MacrosVBA/CreateAMacro.htm

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly.  Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

Peacherman,

My code is likely rough, because I am just learning.  Something like this
might work

Sub ShadeDesigCells()
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
 .Text = "XX"
 .Forward = True
 .Wrap = wdFindContinue
Do While Selection.Find.Execute = True
  Selection.EndKey
  With Selection.Cells.Shading
     .Texture = wdTextureNone
     .ForegroundPatternColor = wdColorAutomatic
     .BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorGray30
  End With
Loop
End With
End Sub