Editing and formatting comments

Comments normally appear to the right of the cell to which they've been assigned in a box with an arrow pointing to the comment indicator (the red triangle in the cell's upper-right corner). If you want, you can reposition a cell's comment box and/or resize it so that it doesn't obscure certain cells in the immediate region. You can also edit the text in the comment box and change the formatting of its text.

To make any of these editing changes, first position the cell pointer in the cell and then click the Edit Comment button on the Reviewing toolbar. (This button replaces the Add Comment button as the first button on the toolbar.) If the Reviewing toolbar isn't currently displayed on-screen, you can also do this by right-clicking on the cell and selecting Edit Comment on the shortcut menu.

Excel then displays the cell's comment box and positions the insertion point at the end of the comment text.

To reposition the comment box, follow these steps:

1. Position the mouse pointer on the edge of the comment box (indicated with cross-hatching and open circles around the perimeter).
2. When the mouse pointer assumes the shape of white arrowhead pointing to a black double cross, drag the outline of the comment box to a new position in the worksheet.
   After you release the mouse button, Excel draws a new line ending in an arrowhead from the repositioned comment box to the red triangle in the cell's upper-right corner.

To resize the comment box, follow these steps:

1. Position the mouse pointer on one of the open circles at the corners and in the middle of each edge on the box's perimeter.
2. When the mouse pointer changes into a doubleheaded arrow, drag the dotted outline of the comment box until it's the size and shape you want.
   Excel automatically reflows the comment text to suit the new size and shape of the box.

To edit the text of the comment while the insertion point is positioned somewhere in it, drag the I-beam mouse pointer through the text that needs to be replaced or press the Backspace key (to remove characters to the left of the insertion point) or Delete key (to remove characters to the right). You can insert new characters by simply typing them.

To change the formatting of the comment text, select the text by dragging through it and then right-click on the text and select Format Comment. Excel opens the Format Comment dialog box (containing the same options as the Font tab of the Format Cells dialog box). Here, you can change the font, font style, font size, font color, or add special effects including underlining, strikethrough, and superand subscripting to the text.

When you finish making your changes to the comment box and text, close the comment box by clicking any cell in the worksheet.