Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Pasting a Comment into Your Worksheet.

Pasting a Comment into Your Worksheet

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 1, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Excel allows you to add comments to individual cells in a worksheet. I often use comments to included explanatory concepts, or to store alternative information to what is in the worksheet. There have often been times when I've wanted to copy something from a comment and place it into a cell on the worksheet. These steps are helpful in this regard:

  1. Right-click the cell whose comment you want to copy and paste into a cell. You'll see a Context menu for the cell.
  2. Choose Edit Comment from the Context menu. Excel displays the comment, with the insertion point in the comment balloon.
  3. Select the text in the comment that you want to paste into a cell. Make sure you do not select the author text at the beginning of the comment or the paragraph mark at the end.
  4. Use Ctrl+X to cut the text or Ctrl+C to copy the text to the Clipboard.
  5. Select the cell into which you want to paste the comment.
  6. If you want to paste the comment text as a formula, press the equal sign.
  7. Press Ctrl+V to paste the information to the cell.

If you performed step 6 to indicate you were creating a formula, press Enter to finish the paste. Excel pastes your comment text into the cell. You can now delete the comment from the source cell (if desired) by right-clicking the cell and choosing Delete Comment.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3385) 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: Pasting a Comment into Your Worksheet.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Printing AutoCorrect Entries

If you want to print a list of all the AutoCorrect entries in your document, Word doesn't provide a method. You can use ...

Discover More

An Automatic Two Spaces after a Period

Should you put two spaces after a sentence or just one? Ask different people and you will get different answers. To Word ...

Discover More

Removing Author Information

Word automatically stores lots of author-related information within a document. Because this data is stored in several ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Linking Comments to Multiple Cells

In Excel, single comments are associated with single cells. If you want to have a comment be linked to multiple cells, ...

Discover More

Editing a Comment Close to Its Cell

Have you ever chosen to edit a comment, only to find that the comment is quite a ways from the cell with which it is ...

Discover More

Comments Don't Appear when Cell is Pointed To

One way that you can view comments in a worksheet is to have them appear when you hover the mouse pointer over a cell. If ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is four minus 0?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.