Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, 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: Finding and Replacing Text in Comments.

Finding and Replacing Text in Notes and Comments

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 10, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365


2

Gerry has a workbook containing 22 worksheets. Each worksheet has about 20 comments. Some of the comments make reference to a company division. He would like to do a mass search and replace of the comments to find each reference (for example, "ABC Division") and replace it with something else (for example, "XYZ subsidiary").

There is no way to do this without using a macro. The regular Find and Replace capabilities in Excel don't allow you to find text within notes or comments, but you can use macro commands. The following is a simple macro to do the replacing:

Sub ReplaceNotesComments()
    Dim c1 As Comment
    Dim c2 As CommentThreaded  ' Remove if Excel 2016 or earlier
    Dim w As Worksheet
    Dim sFind As String
    Dim sReplace As String
    Dim sCmt As String

    sFind = "ABC Division"
    sReplace = "XYZ subidiary"

    For Each w In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
        ' Replace in any notes
        For Each c1 In w.Comments
            sCmt = c1.Text
            If InStr(sCmt, sFind) <> 0 Then
                sCmt = Application.WorksheetFunction. _
                  Substitute(sCmt, sFind, sReplace)
                c1.Text Text:=sCmt
            End If
        Next

        ' Replace in any threaded comments
        ' Running on Excel 2016 and earlier will generate
        ' an error, so remove this code if on earlier version
        For Each c2 In w.CommentsThreaded
            sCmt = c2.Text
            If InStr(sCmt, sFind) <> 0 Then
                sCmt = Application.WorksheetFunction. _
                  Substitute(sCmt, sFind, sReplace)
                c2.Text Text:=sCmt
            End If
        Next
    Next
End Sub

The key lines here are those that set the sFind and sReplace variables. You should set those to reflect what you are searching for and what you want it replaced with, respectively.

Note, as well, that the macro has separate loops that step through first notes and then through comments. (Notes were called comments in Excel 2016 and earlier. Starting in Excel 2019, the old-fashioned comments are now called notes and comments now refer to threaded comments.) If you will be running this macro on older versions of Excel, 2016 and earlier, then you'll want to modify the macro by deleting the code indicated. You cannot just test for versions because, well, there is no straightforward way to test for versions these days and the Dim statement for variable c2 will generate an error right off the bat.

The macro works by stepping, first, through each comment (note) in each worksheet and making the changes. It then steps through each comment (threaded) and makes changes there, as well.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11149) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Finding and Replacing Text in 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. ...

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Comments

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What is 7 + 8?

2025-05-13 11:05:43

J. Woolley

The Tip's macro can be simplified by using VBA's Replace function instead of Application.WorksheetFunction.Substitute; i.e., this statement
                sCmt = Application.WorksheetFunction. _
                    Substitute(sCmt, sFind, sReplace)
can be changed to this statement
                sCmt = Replace(sCmt, sFind, sReplace)
There are two instances in the macro.


2025-05-12 12:17:58

J. Woolley

For more about finding text in notes and comments, see https://excelribbon.tips.net/T007852_Searching_Comments.html


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