Anyone using the spreadsheet can respond to a comment or even delete it. All comments are marked with the user’s name, dated, and time-stamped. Comments differ from Excel notes, which are similar to placing a yellow sticky note into the file. Other users cannot respond to a note in Excel but they can carry on small conversations using comments. The instructions below focus on the easiest ways to add, edit, and delete comments in Windows or on a Mac; scroll to the bottom of this article for Excel for Android instructions.
Inserting, Editing, or Deleting a Comment in Excel for Windows or macOS
How to Add a Comment
The easiest way to create a comment that others can respond to is follow these steps: You probably noticed that once you clicked the green arrow, the comment automatically showed a Reply box. That’s where other readers can respond to the comment. They simply type in their reply and click the green arrow that appears to post their response back to you. This back-and-forth response through comments is called a Reply Thread. In some versions of Excel, including Excel 2016, you can also use the Ribbon to leave a comment. Just click the cell where you want to leave a comment, click Review on the Ribbon, and then click New Comment or Insert Comment.
How to Reply to a Comment
To reply to a comment someone else has left for you, you can either click on the cell and enter a reply immediately into the Reply box or you can right-click the cell where the comment is located and use the Reply box from there.
How to Edit a Comment
You can add more comments to a thread you started or you can edit a comment you already posted. To edit a comment you have made, follow these steps: If you decide midway through your change that your edit isn’t necessary, just click Cancel.
How to Delete a Comment
Anyone can delete a comment in a spreadsheet, not just the person who started the comment thread. When a comment is no longer needed, right-click the cell where it is located and click Delete Comment from the menu.
How to Show Or Hide All Comments
There are additional ways you can post and respond to comments in Excel. The Ribbon offers an entire Review section that allows you to open up a Comments pane to the right of the spreadsheet. You can easily bounce from comment to comment using this section of the Ribbon or add and delete comments. (Just be sure you have selected the correct cell before you use any of the Ribbon commands.) The Review tab also allows you to show or hide comments. To see all the comments in a spreadsheet, go to Review > Show Comments. To hide all the comments, use the same instructions and the comments will all disappear. The purple marks in commented cells, however, will always appear.
Inserting, Editing, or Deleting a Comment on Android
How to Add a Comment
To add a comment in Excel for Android, you first need to work within the Review pane in the spreadsheet. To do that, follow these steps:
How to Reply to a Comment
To respond to a comment in Excel for Android spreadsheets, follow these steps:
How to Delete a Comment Thread
To delete a comment thread in Excel for Android spreadsheets, tap the three horizontal dots at the top of the thread and tap Delete thread.
