Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 8, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013
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 comments, but you can use macro commands. The following is a simple macro to do the replacing:
Sub ReplaceComments() Dim cmt As Comment Dim wks As Worksheet Dim sFind As String Dim sReplace As String Dim sCmt As String sFind = "ABC Division" sReplace = "XYZ subidiary" For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets For Each cmt In wks.Comments sCmt = cmt.Text If InStr(sCmt, sFind) <> 0 Then sCmt = Application.WorksheetFunction. _ Substitute(sCmt, sFind, sReplace) cmt.Text Text:=sCmt End If Next Next Set wks = Nothing Set cmt = Nothing 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. The macro steps through each comment in each worksheet of the current workbook and makes the changes anywhere they are located.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11149) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Finding and Replacing Text in Comments.
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