Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. 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: Searching Comments.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 29, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021
When I am creating a worksheet, it is not unusual for me to add all sorts of comments to various cells. This is a great way to keep notes and to document exactly what is going on in the worksheet. There have been workbooks I have created that include scores of comments.
If you are like me, then what is out of sight is often out of mind. This means that I can forget what I put in all the comments or—worse yet—I may remember that something is in a comment, but I don't remember the cell to which that comment is attached. Subsequently finding the right comment can be perplexing.
Fortunately, Excel makes it quite easy to search through comments in a worksheet. Simply follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
Excel locates any cells that have comments that include the desired text. The cell is selected, but the comment is not displayed. Depending on your version of Excel, you may need to close the Find and Replace dialog box in order to display the comment for the cell.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (7852) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Searching Comments.
Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!
Need to copy whatever is in a comment (a "note") into a cell on your worksheet? If you have lots of comments, manually ...
Discover MoreExcel allows you to add comments to individual cells in your workbook. Unfortunately, Excel doesn't provide a way to ...
Discover MoreExcel allows you to use a picture as a background on a cell comment. This tip looks at how you can paste pictures into a ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2024-06-29 10:28:42
J. Woolley
My Excel Toolbox includes the following dynamic array function:
=ListComments([AllSheets], [Threaded], [SkipHeader])
This function returns one row for each comment in either the current sheet or all sheets in the workbook with the following columns: Worksheet, Cell, Author, Comment (text). It works with threaded or unthreaded comments. When using pre-2021 versions of Excel without support for dynamic arrays, review the PDF file UseSpillArray.pdf.
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/
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.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2024 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. 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:
Comments