Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 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: Pasting a Comment into Your Worksheet.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 14, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Excel allows you to add comments to individual cells in a worksheet. I often use comments to included explanatory concepts, or to store alternative information to what is in the worksheet. There have often been times when I've wanted to copy something from a comment and place it into a cell on the worksheet. These steps are helpful in this regard (Excel 2007, Excel 2010, and Excel 2013):
If you are using Excel 2016 or a later version, you will notice the Context menu displayed in steps 1 and 2, above, don't have the Edit Comment option listed. Follow these steps to copy and paste a comment from one cell to another:
If you performed step 6 (all versions of Excel) to indicate you were creating a formula, press Enter to finish the paste. Excel pastes your comment text into the cell. You can now delete the comment from the source cell (if desired) by right-clicking the cell and choosing Delete Comment.
Excel also provides a different way to "open" a comment so it can be edited—by pressing Shift+F2. This could be used to replace steps 1 and 2, above, by simply selecting the cell whose comment you want to copy and then pressing Shift+F2. The rest of the steps (3 through 7) could then be followed as noted. If you are using Excel 2016 or a later version, pressing Shift+F2 will only "open" notes; the key press won't open a comment.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10943) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Pasting a Comment into Your Worksheet.
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2024-02-16 10:36:00
J. Woolley
My Excel Toolbox also 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/
2024-02-16 00:19:01
Peter
I have found it useful to extract comment text from a range of cells. In this case, you need a comment separator and a missing comment code. In my case, I used a semicolon to separate them and an exclamation mark if missing.
2024-02-15 11:04:56
J. Woolley
@Beepee
If you have Office 2019, I believe you have the 2019 versions of Excel, Word, etc. Perhaps you can review File > Account > About Excel.
Shift+F2 should open a legacy comment (Note) in all versions of Excel mentioned in the Tip.
My Excel Toolbox includes the following function to return the text of a comment associated with a Target worksheet cell:
=CommentText(Target, [SkipAuthor])
This works with either a legacy unthreaded comment (Note) or a threaded Comment. If SkipAuthor is FALSE (default), the comment's author will be included in the returned text if available; otherwise, the comment's author will not be included if possible. If Target is a multi-cell range, its top-left cell applies. If Target's cell does not have a comment, #VALUE! (Error 2015) will be returned.
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox
2024-02-14 05:18:29
Beepee
Hi.
Just curious but... I tried out the above tip on my version of Excel and it is the first explanation that worked not the second. However I have: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019. Does this mean the office suite is bundled together with 'allsorts' of the individual apps and that I have an 'older' version of Excel than 2019?
Like I say - just curious; it does all that I need (so far).
Beepee
2019-11-18 11:13:33
RKeevill
Or you can create a small macro that can do this like
cell.Value = cell.Comment.Text
2019-11-18 06:26:23
MalR
I am a long term user of comments in a spreadsheet. As you alluded. MS has changed the old Comment to now be a Note. Comments are there but they mean something different. So if you want to add a comment to a cell in the true manner that Comments were intended you now have to add a Note. Everything else remains the same. Just MS believing we need a change for no reason!
2019-11-16 05:50:52
Jim
Allen, in Excel 2007, you can just use paste special too. Right?
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 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:
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