Excel Comments - Basics

Add Excel comments to worksheets cells, to explain the contents, or to offer tips to users.

Note: Threaded Comments are being added to Excel, and some Legacy Comment features are not available in Threaded Comments.

Insert an Excel Comment

1. Right-click the cell in which you want the comment.
2. Click Insert Comment
3. Type your comment where the cursor is flashing.
4. Text will wrap automatically. If you want to start a new line, press the Enter key.
5. When finished, click outside the comment box

Display a Specific Comment

1. Right-click the cell which contains the comment.
2. Choose Show/Hide Comments

To hide the comment:

1. Right-click the cell which contains the comment.
2. Click Hide Comment

Display All Comments

1. On the Excel Ribbon, click the Review tab
2. In the Comments group, click Show All Comments
   Note: All comments in all open workbooks will be displayed.

3. To hide the comments, click the Show All Comments command again.

Format Text in an Excel Comment

You can change the font, the font size, font colour and font style, for all or part of an Excel comment.

1. Right-click the cell which contains the comment.
2. Choose Edit Comment
3. To format all text, click on the border of the comment shape.
   To format specific text within the comment, drag over the text to select it.
4. Use the Font tools on the Formatting toolbar to modify the text appearance
5. When finished, click outside the comment box.

Printing Excel Comments

You can print Excel comments in 2 built-in ways:

• print comments as displayed on the worksheet,
• print comments at the end of the worksheet

Or, use a macro to print comments with a triangle comment indicator, or a small number, at the top right corner of the cell.

This short video shows the steps for the two built-in ways of printing worksheet comments , and there are written steps below the video

Print comments as displayed

To print Excel comments as they are displayed on the sheet, follow these steps:

1. Show specific comments or all comments.
2. On the Excel Ribbon, click the Page Layout tab
3. In the Page Setup section, click the Dialog Launcher at the bottom right

   

4. On the Sheet tab, from the Comments dropdown, choose 'As displayed on sheet'.

   

5. Click Ok
6. Choose File|Print (or click the Print button)

Print comments at end of worksheet

To print Excel comments at the end of the worksheet, follow these steps:

1. Choose File|Page Setup
2. On the Sheet tab, from the Comments dropdown, choose 'At end of sheet'.
3. Click Ok
4. Choose File|Print (or click the Print button)

Print Comments with Triangles or Numbers

When you print a worksheet that contains comments, the comment indicators are not visible.

Unless the comments are shown, there is no indication of which cells contain comments.

• Note: There is no built-in option to change this behaviour.

As a workaround, you can use macros to mark the comment cells, before you print the worksheet. Use one the macros linked below, to mark the comments cells with:

• triangle shapes, like the built-in comment indicators
• small numbers, like footnotes

Add Triangle Shapes for Comment Cell Printing

Before you print a worksheet, you can use a macro, to draw a triangle AutoShapes over the comment indicators, at the top right corner of the comment cell.

You can get the sample file with this macro, in the Download section below.

For the written instructions, go to the Comment Macros page.

Add Numbers in Comment Cells

Another option for printing comments, is to use macros that:

• add small numbers a the top right corner of the comments cells, like a footnote in the cell.
• list the numbered comments on a separate sheet
• remove the numbered shapes that were added to each comment cell

You can get the sample file with this macro, in the Download section below.

For the written instructions, go to the Comment Macros page.

Download the Sample Files

1. Comment Basics: Get the sample file for Excel comments - basic steps. The zipped Excel workbook is in xlsx format, and does not contain macros.
2. Triangle Shapes on Comments: Get the sample file for printing worksheet with triangle shapes on comments. The zipped Excel workbook is in xlsm format, and contains macros. Be sure to enable macros if you want to test the comment printing macros.
3. Numbered Comments: Get the sample file for printing numbered comments. The zipped Excel workbook is in xlsm format, and contains macros. Be sure to enable macros if you want to test the comment printing macros.

Related Tutorials

Excel Comments -- Tips

Excel Comments -- Macros

Add Comments in a Pivot Table