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: Editing Comments.

Editing Comments and Notes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 8, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


Once a comment has been added to a cell in a worksheet, it is inevitable that you'll need to edit that comment at some time. How you do so depends on whether you are working with what Microsoft now refers to as comments or what they historically referred to as comments, but are now called notes.

Let's start with notes. These are easy to edit. All you need to do is right-click on a cell to which a comment is attached, then you can choose Edit Comment from the resulting Context menu. If you prefer, you can simply select the cell that has a comment attached and press Shift+F2 or click the Edit Comment tool on the Review tab of the ribbon. Any of these methods result in the insertion point appearing inside of the note. You can then add more text or delete text, as desired.

Another way to edit notes is available if you have all of them displayed on-screen, instead of just note indicators. In this instance, you can edit a note simply by positioning the insertion point within the note box and clicking on the mouse button. The note's text box becomes active and you can edit to your heart's content.

Now for what are now called comments, which are threaded in nature. If you have this type of comments in your worksheet, you can hover the mouse pointer over the cell to which the comment is attached. You should then see the comment thread appear to the side, and at the upper-right corner of any comment there is a pencil icon. (This appears only if you are the author of the comment.) Click the pencil, and you can edit the comment as desired.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11749) 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: Editing 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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If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

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