Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 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: Adding a Comment to Multiple Cells.

Adding a Comment to Multiple Cells

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 7, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


2

Keith notes that adding a comment to a cell is easy. He wonders if there is a way to insert the same comment into multiple cells at the same time.

The short answer is that there is no way to insert multiple comments at the same time. You can, however, copy a comment to multiple cells. Follow these steps:

  1. Insert your comment in the first cell, as you normally would.
  2. Select the commented cell and press Ctrl+C. This copies the cell to the Clipboard.
  3. Select the range of cells that you want to have the same comment.
  4. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  5. Click the down-arrow under the Paste tool and then select Paste Special. Excel displays the Paste Special dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  6. Figure 1. The Paste Special dialog box.

  7. Click the Comments radio button.
  8. Click OK.

The result is that only the comment from the cell in step 2 is pasted to the cells you selected in step 3. If any of those cells already had comments, those comments are replaced with the one you are pasting.

If you really want to add the comment to all the cells at the same time, then the only way to do it is through a macro. The following example will prompt you for a comment and then add the comment to all the cells you've selected.

Sub InsertCommentsSelection()
    Dim sCmt As String
    Dim rCell As Range

    sCmt = InputBox( _
      Prompt:="Enter Comment to Add" & vbCrLf & _
      "Comment will be added to all cells in Selection", _
      Title:="Comment to Add")
    If sCmt = "" Then
        MsgBox "No comment added"
    Else
        For Each rCell In Selection
            With rCell
                .ClearComments
                .AddComment
                .Comment.Text Text:=sCmt
            End With
        Next
    End If
    Set rCell = Nothing
End Sub

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 (11499) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Adding a Comment to Multiple Cells.

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 9 + 5?

2021-06-08 04:50:08

Rick Rothstein

For your macro, instead of looping through each cell in the selection, why not just implement the code equivalent of the manual steps you outlined above...

Sub InsertCommentsSelection()
Dim sCmt As String
sCmt = InputBox("Enter Comment to Add" & vbCrLf & _
"Comment will be added to all cells in Selection", _
"Comment to Add")
If sCmt = "" Then
MsgBox "No comment added"
Else
Selection(1).AddComment sCmt
Selection(1).Copy
Selection.PasteSpecial xlPasteComments
End If
End Sub


2018-10-06 21:30:00

Kevin K

Thank you


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