Pasting a Comment into Your Worksheet

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):

1. Right-click the cell whose comment you want to copy and paste into a cell. You'll see a Context menu for the cell.
2. Choose Edit Comment from the Context menu. Excel displays the comment, with the insertion point in the comment balloon.
3. Select the text in the comment that you want to paste into a cell. Make sure you do not select the author text at the beginning of the comment or the paragraph mark at the end.
4. Use Ctrl+X to cut the text or Ctrl+C to copy the text to the Clipboard.
5. Select the cell into which you want to paste the comment.
6. If you want to paste the comment text as a formula, press the equal sign.
7. Press Ctrl+V to paste the information to the cell.

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:

1. Hover the mouse pointer over the cell whose comment you want to copy and paste into a cell. The comment will be displayed.
2. Move the mouse pointer into the comment box and click on the Edit button which is displayed near the right side of the box.
3. Select the text in the comment that you want to paste into a cell.
4. Use Ctrl+X to cut the text or Ctrl+C to copy the text to the Clipboard.
5. Select the cell into which you want to paste the comment.
6. If you want to paste the comment text as a formula, press the equal sign.
7. Press Ctrl+V to paste the information to the cell.

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 Excel in Office 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Pasting a Comment into Your Worksheet.