Is there any easy way to search for a specific word within a cell?

I'm thinking the only way is VBA, so I've broken the rules to write a macro (...sorry) for you that can achieve this quickly. It will colour every occurrence of the search term orange and tell you how many occurrences it finds. You could create a shortcut to it like CTRL+SHIFT+F (like a special CTRL+F).

By the way, it works the same as CTRL+F as far as selections go. That is to say, if only one cell is selected then it searches the whole sheet... but if a range of cells is selected then it only checks that specific range, just like the regular Find function.

Here's an example result:

And here's the VBA:

Sub findPaintString()
    Dim values As Range
    Dim LastRow As Long, LastCol As Integer

    myName = "Find+Paint String"

    'We'll work like the normal Find/Replace function which looks at the selected range...
    Set values = Selection

    '...if the selected range is one cell then we look at the entire worksheet (within the used range):
    If values.Cells.Count = 1 Then
        LastRow = Cells.Find(What:="*", SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, SearchOrder:=xlByRows).Row
        LastCol = Cells.Find(What:="*", SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns).Column
        Set values = Range(Cells(1, 1), Cells(LastRow, LastCol))
    End If

    'Set a suggested/default search query if you repeatedly search the same word:
    strSearch = ""

    'Get the string to paint:
    theString = CStr(InputBox("Enter the string you want to paint" & vbNewLine & "(not case sensitive):", myName, strSearch))
    If theString = "" Then Exit Sub

    'Set the colour to paint occurrences:
    theColour = 1137094

    'Make a log of occurrences:
    foundLog = 0

    'Work through each cell in range, searching for the string and painting it:
    For Each cell In values
        'Check if our string is somewhere in the cell - if not then ignore it:
        If InStr(LCase(cell.Value), LCase(theString)) Then
            matchLog = 0 'match success log (increments by 1 per character)
            j = 1 ' string character selector
            For i = 1 To cell.Characters.Count
                If LCase(Mid(cell.Value, i, 1)) = LCase(Mid(theString, j, 1)) Then
                    matchLog = matchLog + 1 '+1 to matchlog
                    j = j + 1 '+1 to string character selector
                    If matchLog = Len(theString) Then
                        'we have found the full word, so paint it:
                        cell.Characters(i - Len(theString) + 1, Len(theString)).Font.Color = theColour
                        j = 1 'reset string character ready for next use
                        matchLog = 0 'reset matchLog ready for next use
                        foundLog = foundLog + 1
                    End If
                Else
                    'reset matchLog and string character selector:
                    matchLog = 0
                    j = 1

                    'see if this cell character (which didn't match the string character that we
                    'got up to) matches the first string character:
                    If LCase(Mid(cell.Value, i, 1)) = LCase(Mid(theString, j, 1)) Then
                        matchLog = matchLog + 1
                        j = j + 1
                    End If
                End If
            Next i
        End If 'in string
    Next cell

    'Tidy data for message box:
    If Len(theString) > 20 Then theString = Left(theString, 16) & "..."
    If foundLog = 0 Then
        foundLog = "0"
        theS = "s"
    ElseIf foundLog = 1 Then
        theS = ""
    Else
        theS = "s"
    End If
    MsgBox "Found " & foundLog & " occurrence" & theS & " of '" & theString & "'.", vbOKOnly, myName
End Sub

It is case insensitive. To make it case sensitive, remove the four instances of LCase().

If you frequently search the same string then change the line strSearch = "" line to [for example] strSearch = "apples". You can still overwrite it when you launch it.