All almost Excel Comments (Notes):

Shortcut Keys, Customize

Groundwork & More

This post will demonstrate how we can work with comments in a better, faster way than is typically executed.

Nosotros volition also run into how to customize our comments to have centre-catching backgrounds and use icons to convey pregnant in lieu of an actual comment.

At the time of this posting (Feb 2019) Microsoft introduced a new Excel feature called Threaded Comments.  This allows users to reply to other's comments and proceed better track of the conversation.

The original comments characteristic in Excel has been retained, only due to such an extreme similarity of features (original Comments versus Threaded Comments), the original Comments are at present referred to as Notes and the new Threaded Comments are referred to as Comments.

This mail will be focusing on the original form of comments, now chosen Notes.

Shortcut Keys

Worksheet cells with embedded comments are easy to recognize by their red triangle in the upper right of a cell.

To insert a annotate using a keyboard shortcut, select the appropriate prison cell and press Shift-F2.

An piece of cake way to recall this keyboard shortcut; the F2 key edits the cells content, whereas Shift-F2 edits the cells comment.

If you would rather insert a comment via the ribbon, click Review (tab) -> Comments (grouping) -> New Comment.

When dealing with a workbook that contains many comments, perhaps spread beyond nifty distances, the Adjacent and Previous buttons in the Comments group allow for speedy navigation from one annotate to some other.

You lot tin can besides edit a annotate by pressing Edit Comment (or right-clicking on a cell and selecting Edit Comment) as well a delete a comment past selecting Delete (or correct-clicking on a cell and selecting Delete Comment.)

Rapidly testify all Comments

If you have many comments on a canvas, and you don't wish to select each prison cell individually to read all the comments, you can force the display of all comments past selecting Review (tab) -> Comments (group) -> Show Comments.  This button acts as a toggle , and then clicking the button  once more will hide all the canvass comments.

If you want to display the comment for a single cell, select the cell and press the Bear witness/Hide Comment button on the ribbon.

Press Comments

In that location are two methods for printing the comments in a worksheet.

Method i – On Sheet Press

If you lot wish to print the comment next to the jail cell containing the annotate, select the Page Layout tab and click on whatever of the Dialog Box Launcher buttons in the lower correct of any supported push button grouping.  This will launch the Folio Setup dialog box.

Since the ribbon has limited screen real manor, these buttons take you to the full characteristic lists in the applicative category.

Select the Sheet tab and so select the dropdown listing for the Comments feature.  Click the choice labeled "Equally displayed on sheet (legacy)".  Keep in mind, the comments will only be printed if they are rendered visible on the sheet by one of the previously discussed methods.

Method ii – End of Sheet Press

If we render to the Page Setup dialog box, click the dropdown for the Comments feature and select "At finish of sail".

This will generate an actress sheet at the cease of your printout listing all the comments, comment authors and cell locations.

Copy/Paste Comments

If you have a annotate in a cell and wish to apply the aforementioned comment to another or several other cells, perform the following steps:

  1. Select the cell with the original comment
  2. Click Copy on the Domicile tab or use the CTRL-C keyboard shortcut
  3. Select the destination cell(s)
  4. On the Habitation tab, select the lower part of the Paste push and select Paste Special
  5. In the Paste Special dialog box, select Comments and click OK

Customize Comment Groundwork

Sadly, nigh users of comments don't migrate across the default appearance of a comment.

For the more adventurous of u.s.a., we can right-click on a comment border and select Format Comment or utilise the CTRL-1 keyboard shortcut.

Aside from the font, font size, font colour customizations, nosotros tin likewise select the Colors and Lines tab of the Format Comment dialog box to access many creative cosmetic features.

An interesting style to get visually creative comments is to add together a groundwork image to the comment.  Nosotros will achieve this past selecting and capturing as a file an icon from the icon library.  We will then apply it as a background for our comment box.

Unfortunately, Excel will let us to perform all but 1 of the steps necessary to reach this issue.  Considering of this Excel limitation, nosotros will utilize PowerPoint to create and capture the background prototype.

The steps to attain this are as follows:

  1. Launch PowerPoint and create a new blank presentation with a blank slide.
  2. Insert an icon by selecting Insert (tab) -> Illustrations (group) -> Icons.
  3. From the icon library, select the icon(southward) that conform your needs. For this tutorial, we will exist using the "tablet" icon from the "Technology and electronics" category and the "checklist" icon from the "Concern" category.  Select the icons and click Insert.
  4. Motility the icons to allow a off-white amount of distance betwixt them.
  5. Resize the icons. Making them larger will allow for easier modifications.
  6. The icons may have unnecessary whitespace surrounding the icon. Select the icon and click Graphic Tools – Format (tab) -> Size (group) -> Ingather and remove the actress whitespace from the icons.
  7. From the Graphic Styles push button grouping, customize the make full color, outline color, and any other cosmetic customizations you lot wish. Go along in listen, the image will exist reduced in size, then the simpler you maintain the look of the icon, the better.
  8. Right-click the icon and select Save as Moving picture. Select the PNG format and save the image to a location and with a filename of your choosing.
  9. Return to Excel, select the border edge of a comment and press CTRL-1.
  10. On the Colors and Lines tab, in the Make full category, select the Color dropdown and click Fill Effects.
  11. Select the Picture tab and click Select Moving picture.
  12. Browse to your newly created picture's folder and select the paradigm.
  13. Check the box titled Lock Picture Aspect Ratio.
  14. In the Line category, gear up the line colour to No Line.
  15. Click OK to accept all settings.
  16. The image may be slightly cropped. Using the resize handles, adjust the comment border until you can thee the epitome in its entirety.
  17. To prevent future resize operations from re-cropping the paradigm, press CTRL-1 to reopen the Format Annotate dialog box. Select the Size tab and place a bank check in the Lock Aspect Ratio option and click OK.
  18. Because the text is slightly obscured by the thick border of the image, press CTRL-1 to return to the Format Comment dialog box. On the Margins tab, set the margins for all for sides to 25".

Observe the concluding version of the custom annotate.

If you wish to apply this annotate box style to other cells without having to perform all the previous steps, employ the "Select-Re-create-Paste Comments" technique discussed earlier.

Using Symbols to Denote Comments

Remember the checkbox icon we saved earlier?  We tin use that prototype in place of an bodily text-based comment to indicate an established meaning.

Repeating the previous steps, just for the checklist epitome, add the prototype to a cell's annotate but remove all the text.

We could convey to our squad, "If you come across the checkbox comment, add that item to the to-practise list."

These are a few ways to create comments that will assistance your spreadsheet stand out and get the attention they deserve.

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