Comments are a useful tool when editing in Excel, especially if more than one user is working on the same worksheet. There are several settings you will want to adjust to make Comments work the best for you. The following articles discuss how to edit and view comments in Excel to achieve communication concerning specific pieces of data.

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Comments' topic. Click the article''s title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

   Adding a Comment to Multiple Cells
Adding a comment to a single cell is easy. What if you want to add the same comment to multiple cells, however? Here are some ideas on how you can accomplish this task.

   Adding Comments to Protected Worksheets
When you protect a worksheet, Excel stops users from editing or otherwise making changes to the data in the worksheet. If you want to allow users to add or make changes to comments, you'll need to apply the workarounds in this tip.

   Adjusting Comment Printouts
Need to print out comments, but in a way that you control what is included in the printout? Here's a way you can extract the comments, place them in their own worksheet, and then format the printout to appear as you want.

   Anchoring Comment Boxes in Desired Locations
Want your comment boxes to appear someplace other than the right side of a cell? You may be out of luck, and here's why.

   Automatically Placing Text in a Comment
Want to automatically move the contents of a cell into a comment for that cell? It's easy enough to do by using the macro presented in this tip.

   Changing Comment Color for a Single User
The default color used to format comments is determined by Windows, not Excel. You can adjust the formatting of individual comments, but changing the default requires using workarounds, such as those in this tip.

   Changing the Background Color for a Comment
Comments are a great way to document your worksheets. Excel provides you the tools you need in order to format your comments just about any way you want. In this tip, you discover how to change the background color of any given comment.

   Changing the Comment Font
When you add a comment to a worksheet, Excel uses a default font and size for the text. If you want to make changes to that default font, it is more complicated than you might imagine.

   Changing the Comment Indicator Color
Add a comment to a worksheet, and you'll notice that Excel places a small, red triangle at the upper-right corner of the cell containing the comment. What if you want to change that triangle's color to something else? It's not that easy to do in Excel.

   Comments Don't Appear when Cell is Pointed To
One way that you can view comments in a worksheet is to have them appear when you hover the mouse pointer over a cell. If they don't appear when they should, the information in this tip may help.

   Copying Comments to Cells
Need to copy whatever is in a comment (a "note") into a cell on your worksheet? If you have lots of comments, manually doing this can be tedious. Here is a macro solution that will make quick work of the copying.

   Copying Comments when Filtering
The filtering feature in Excel allows you to quickly copy unique information from one data list to another. If you want to copy the comments or notes associated with that information, you are out of luck; filtering won't do it. There are workarounds you can use to get the same result, however.

   Counting Comments in a Worksheet
Need to know how many comments are in a worksheet? You can figure out the count manually, or you can apply the handy macro presented in this tip.

   Editing a Comment Close to Its Cell
Have you ever chosen to edit a comment, only to find that the comment is quite a ways from the cell with which it is associated? Here's why that condition occurs and how to fix it.

   Editing Comments and Notes
Comments and notes can be very helpful in a worksheet. After they are added, you may want to change what they contain. Here's how to make the edits you want.

   Filtering for Comments (Notes)
Excel makes it easy to filter a data table based on various values in that table. It isn't so easy to filter according to whether a cell contains comments or notes. Here are a few ways you can make the filtering easier.

   Finding and Replacing Text in Comments
Excel allows you to add comments to individual cells in your workbook. Unfortunately, Excel doesn't provide a way to search and replace text in those comments. You can do it with a macro, however.

   Formatting Text in Comment Boxes
Want to make your worksheet comments appear a certain way? It's easy to do using techniques you are already familiar with.

   Hyperlinks in Comments
Need to add a hyperlink to a comment or note? It's easy to do by following the steps outlined in this tip.

   Inserting Workbook Comments Into a Cell
One of the pieces of information that Excel can maintain relative to a workbook is a set of comments of your choice. There is no built-in way to copy these comments to a cell, but you can use a short macro to make short work of the need.

   Keyboard Shortcut for Comments
Adding comments or notes to the cells in your worksheets can help to document different aspects of that worksheet. Adding a comment is easy enough, but you may want to make it even easier by using one of the shortcuts provided in this tip.

   Linking Comments to Multiple Cells
In Excel, single comments are associated with single cells. If you want to have a comment be linked to multiple cells, you'll need to use the workaround discussed here.

   Locking the Size of Pictures in Comments
Excel allows you to place pictures inside of comments. If you do this, you may have experienced a situation where the size of those pictures increases greatly, without notice. Here are some ideas on how to handle this problem.

   Managing Comments
If you frequently add comments to cells in a worksheet, Excel provides a variety of tools you can use to manage those comments. This tip provides an overview of the tools provided.

   Moving Comment Background Pictures to Cells
When formatting comments, you can use a graphic as a background for the comment box. If you later want to move this graphic into the worksheet itself, the task can be difficult. The macro presented in this tip makes quick work of the task, however.

   Pasting a Comment into Your Worksheet
Excel allows you to not only put information into cells, but into comments attached to those cells. Here's how to copy the information from a comment into a cell, using techniques you are already familiar with.

   Pasting Into a Comment
Pasting the contents of a single cell into a comment is rather easy. Pasting the contents of a range of cells is a different story. Here is the easiest way to paste cell contents into a comment.

   Pasting Pictures into a Comment
Excel allows you to use a picture as a background on a cell comment. This tip looks at how you can paste pictures into a comment under the control of a macro.

   Placing a Picture in a Comment
When editing a worksheet, you can place comments or notes that are associated with individual cells. If you want, you can format a comment to use a picture as a background. Here's how to make that change.

   Placing Formula Results in a Comment
Excel won't allow you to directly or automatically insert the results of a formula into a cell's comment. You can, however, use a macro to place that result exactly where you want it.

   Printing Comments
Comments can be a boon when you want to annotate your worksheets. If you want, you can instruct Excel to print the comments right along with the worksheet itself. Here's how to instruct Excel to include them.

   Printing Formatted Comments
When you print your worksheet, you may want Excel to include your comments or notes as they appear on the screen. Here's how to make sure that you get what you want.

   Recognizing Notes and Comments in a Macro
When using macros to process comments, it is best to know the various ways that those comments can be accessed. This tip looks at both the Comments and CommentsThreaded collections and how they can be used.

   Searching Comments
Need to find that misplaced comment in your worksheet? It's easy to do using the Find and Replace capabilities of Excel.

   Static Sizes for Comment Boxes
Adding comments to your worksheet can be helpful in documenting what the worksheet contains. If you want to make sure that your comment boxes are always the size you expect, you'll need to be careful with how you can Excel configured.

   Viewing Comments
There are three different ways that Excel allows you to display any comments that are in your worksheet. Here's how you can change the display method used.

   Viewing the Contents of a Very Wide Cell on Demand
Each cell in a worksheet can hold quite a bit of information. If you want to see the information in the cell without the need to make the cell wider, you'll appreciate the tips presented here.