Like you, I seek the more user-friendly approaches. Here is my method: Select the range you wish to search, Select Home, Find & Select, Find, then enter your criteria. then Find All. The bottom of the Find & Replace dialog box will list all the cells that match (it may look like only 2 or 3 items, but there is a scroll bar on the right that will help display many more lines). Click on the first item, hold the Shift key, slide the scroll bar to the bottom, and still holding the Shift key, click on the last item. You have now selected all the matching cells. (Don't click anywhere else or you will lose your selection)

Now, select your highlight button (or "Theme Colors") and click on a highlight color. All your selected cells are now highlighted.