Working with Comments

The Insert Comment command enables you to add comments to your worksheets. Adding comments is useful if you are going to share your work with others. Some explanation might be necessary to clarify certain portions of a worksheet or workbook. Adding comments is also helpful for tracking your work or tracing your footsteps if you are using complex formulas and references. Comments enable you to remind yourself of how a portion of a worksheet operates and to insert questions or comments for others to read.

Adding a Comment

In the next To Do exercise, you add a comment to explain the data in a cell .

To Do: Add a Comment

1. Select the cell for which you want to enter a comment; in this case, select cell B4.

2. Choose Insert, Comment. You should see a box with an insertion point in it next to cell B4.

3. In the Comment box, type See the Detail sheet for a breakdown of hard volume sales . Your name appears in the comment, followed by the text you entered.

   

   If you want to enter a comment for multiple cells, select the range of cells and then add the comment. Excel places the comment in the first cell you select in the range.

   
   

4. Click another cell to close the comment. A red triangle appears in the upper-right corner of the cell that contains the comment.

You cannot close a comment by pressing Enterthat just adds a blank line. To close a comment, click another cell.

Displaying a Comment

To display a comment, point to the cell that contains the comments. The comment should pop up, as shown in Figure 8.15.

Figure 8.15. Displaying a comment.

Editing a Comment

To edit a comment, choose View, Comments. Excel displays the Reviewing toolbar and the comments you added to the worksheet, as shown in Figure 8.16. To move from comment to comment, click the Next Comment and Previous Comment buttons on the Reviewing toolbar.

Figure 8.16. The Reviewing toolbar.

When you find the comment you want to change, click it and use the Editing function (discussed in Hour 2, "Entering Data") to make your changes.

To hide all the comments, click the Hide All Comments button on the Reviewing toolbar. You no longer see any comments on the worksheet.

When you're finished using the Reviewing toolbar, close the toolbar by right-clicking anywhere in the toolbar area, and choose Reviewing on the Toolbars menu.

Deleting a Comment

When you're ready to delete a comment, choose View, Comments and click the Comment box. You should see selection handles (white squares) and a diagonal-line border surrounding the box. Click the comment's border. The selection handles remain , and the border is shaded with dots. The dots mean that the comment is selected. Press the Delete key to delete the comment.