Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: Counting Comments in a Worksheet.

Counting Comments in a Worksheet

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated July 16, 2016)

Sanjib would like to get a count of all the comments in a worksheet. Unfortunately, Excel doesn't include a function that allows you to access this information. You can, however, get the value manually by using this process:

  1. Press F5. Excel displays the Go To dialog box.
  2. Click Special. Excel displays the Go To Special dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Go To Special dialog box.

  3. Make sure the Comments radio button is selected.
  4. Click OK. Excel selects all the cells that contain comments.
  5. Right-click the status bar and choose Count. The status bar now displays the number of selected cells—the number of comments in the worksheet. (This only works accurately if there is something in each cell that has a comment associated with it.)

If you want to get the number of comments and place it into a cell, then you need to use a macro to create a user-defined function.

Function CountComments(rCell As Range)
    Application.Volatile
    CountComments = rCell.Parent.Comments.Count
End Function

This function grabs the value of the Count property for the Comments collection. It is then returned by the function to the worksheet. To use it in your worksheet, enter a formula such as the following:

=CountComments(A1)

The cell address you use in the formula is unimportant; it should simply reference a cell on the worksheet for which you want the count.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12363) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Counting Comments in a Worksheet.

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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