Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Viewing Comments.

Viewing Comments

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 24, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365

3

Excel allows you to add comments to the cells in your workbook. At some point you may want to view your comments. Simply follow these steps:

  1. Display the Excel Options dialog box. (In Excel 2007 click the Office button and then click Excel Options. In Excel 2010 and later versions display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
  2. Click Advanced at the left of the dialog box.
  3. Scroll down until you see the Display section. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The advanced options of the Excel Options dialog box.

  4. Select from the three radio buttons in the For Cells with Comments portion of the dialog box. (The meanings of these settings are described shortly.)
  5. Click OK to close the dialog box.

There are three possible settings for comments (see step 4). The three radio buttons are as follows:

  • No Comments, Notes, or Indicators. This option is selected by default. You can't see any indication of comments or notes in a workbook if this option is selected.
  • Indicators Only, and Comments and Notes on Hover. This option results in a small red triangle displayed in the upper-right corner of cells that have comments or notes.
  • Indicators and Notes, and Comments on Hover. With this option selected, the comment indicators (red triangles) still appear, but all the notes in your workbook are visible. Comments are visible only when you hover over a cell that contains comments. If you have a lot of notes, then your screen can appear very cluttered very quickly.

The exact names of these options will vary, depending on your version of Excel. This is because in approximately early 2022 Microsoft added the concept of threaded comments and renamed the older comments as notes. Thus, if the three options don't refer to notes, then you know you are using a version of Excel that doesn't support the newer threaded comments.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6251) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Viewing Comments.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Sorting Text

Word makes it easy to sort the information that is contained in your document. Here's how to accomplish this.

Discover More

Tombstone Date Math

Doing math with dates is easy in Excel. Doing math with old dates, such as those you routinely encounter in genealogy, is ...

Discover More

Inserting and Deleting Footnotes

Footnotes are essential in some types of writing. When you need to add footnotes to your documents, you'll appreciate the ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! John Walkenbach's name is synonymous with excellence in deciphering complex technical topics. With this comprehensive guide, "Mr. Spreadsheet" shows how to maximize your Excel experience using professional spreadsheet application development tips from his own personal bookshelf. Check out Excel 2013 Power Programming with VBA today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Searching Comments

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

Discover More

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 ...

Discover More

Managing Comments

If you frequently add comments to cells in a worksheet, Excel provides a variety of tools you can use to manage those ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is two minus 1?

2023-10-26 15:22:46

J. Woolley

@Selie
My Excel Toolbox includes the CommentDisplayMode macro to cycle through the three comment display mode options (none, indicator only, indicator and unthreaded comment). The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+T C D.
Here is an abbreviated version:

Sub CommentDisplayMode()
    With Application
        .DisplayCommentIndicator = Choose((.DisplayCommentIndicator + 2), _
            xlCommentAndIndicator, xlCommentIndicatorOnly, xlNoIndicator)
    End With
End Sub

And see https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox

2023-10-25 15:35:35

Selie

Why is there no option to have "indicators Only, nothing on hover"?

I do need to know what cells in my sheet have a comment, so having an indicator there is great!
The constant accidental popups however when I am actively formatting my work is driving me nuts!
it seems like a logical next step in the line of options too, its just strange that the option isn't there.

2023-06-24 10:03:57

J. Woolley

Click Alt+R+T+T to view each comment (note) on a worksheet one at a time.
Click Alt+R+T+S to view all comments (notes) on the worksheet.

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.