Placing Formula Results in a Comment

Bob asked if it is possible to write a formula and get the result in a comment, instead of in a cell. The short answer is that no, you can't do it with a formula. You can, however, do it with a macro. For instance, the following macro adds the contents of two cells (A1 and B1) and then sticks the result in a comment attached to cell C1:

Sub MakeComment()
    With Worksheets(1).Range("C1").AddComment
        .Visible = True
        .Text "Total of cell A1 plus cell B1 is equal to " & _
          ([A1].Value) + ([B1].Value)
    End With
End Sub

If you'd rather run the macro on a range of cells, then a different approach is necessary. The following macro loops thru all the cells in a selection. If the cell contains a formula, the macro puts the value (the formula's result) in a comment attached to that cell.

Sub ValueToComment()
    Dim rCell As Range
    For Each rCell In Selection
        With rCell
            If .HasFormula Then
                On Error Resume Next
                .Comment.Delete
                On Error GoTo 0
                .AddComment
                .Comment.Text Text:=CStr(rCell.Value)
            End If
        End With
    Next
    Set rCell = Nothing
End Sub

While looping through the cells in the selection, if one of the cells has a formula and an existing comment, then the comment is deleted and replaced with the new comment that contains the formula result. Afterwards the cell's value will display as well as a comment with the same number. Instead of CStr you could also use Format function to display the value in any way you might want.

You can also create a macro that will modify a comment whenever you update the contents of a particular cell. For instance, let's say that every time someone made a change in cell C11, you wanted the result of whatever is in that cell to be placed into a comment attached to cell F15. The following macro does just that:

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
    Dim sResult As String

    If Union(Target, Range("C11")).Address = Target.Address Then
        Application.EnableEvents = False
        Application.ScreenUpdating = False
        sResult = Target.Value
        Target.ClearContents

        With Range("F15")
            .ClearComments
            .AddComment
            .Comment.Text Text:=sResult
        End With
        Application.EnableEvents = True
        Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    End If
End Sub

When someone enters a formula (or a value) into cell C11, the results of that formula (or the value itself) is placed into a comment that is attached to cell F15. Since this is an event-triggered macro, it needs to be entered in the code window for the worksheet on which it will function.

Finally, you may want to have your macro monitor an entire column. The following macro uses the Change event of a worksheet, just like the previous macro. It, however, only kicks into action if the change was made in column F, and only if a single cell in that column was changed.

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
    If Target.Cells.Count > 1 Then Exit Sub
    If Target.Column <> 6 Then Exit Sub

    Dim x As String
    Application.EnableEvents = False
    If Target.HasFormula Then
        x = Evaluate(Target.Formula)
    Else
        x = Target.Text
    End If

    Target.ClearComments
    If Target.Text = "" Then
        Application.EnableEvents = True
        Exit Sub
    End If

    Target.AddComment x
    Target = ""
    Application.EnableEvents = True
End Sub

If the user makes a change to a single cell in column F, the macro grabs the result of what was entered and places it in a comment attached to that cell. The contents of the cell are then deleted.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3374) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Placing Formula Results in a Comment.