Changing the Comment Color

Excel allows you to add comments to individual cells in a worksheet. These are handy for keeping notes pertaining to the contents of a cell. (How you add comments is discussed in other ExcelTips.) When you later move your mouse pointer over the top of a cell that has a comment associated with it, a small pop-up box appears that shows the comment.

The normal color for the comment box is a pale yellow, to supposedly mimic the appearance of the paper sticky notes that we all know and love so well. What if you don't like pale yellow sticky notes, however? In that case, you may be looking for a way to change the color Excel uses for the comment box.

The news here is both bad and good. It is bad because Excel doesn't have a way to change just the color of the comment box. The good news is that Excel relies on the system colors set in Windows to determine what color the comment boxes should be. Excel uses the ToolTip color setting for the comment boxes. If you want to change that setting, follow these steps if you are using Windows XP:

1. Minimize Excel, along with all your other programs.
2. Right-click on any area of the desktop itself. Windows displays a Context menu.
3. Choose Properties. Windows opens the Display Properties dialog box.
4. Make sure the Appearance tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
5. Select Advanced in the lower right-hand corner. Windows displays the Advanced Appearance dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
6. Using the Item drop-down list, choose ToolTip.
7. Click on the Color indicator, to the right of the Item drop-down list. Windows displays a small palette you can use to select a color.
8. Click on the color you want to use.
9. Click on OK.

Now your comment boxes will be the color you selected. In addition, since you changed the ToolTip color, all your ToolTips in Excel and all your other programs will be the same color.