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: Adjusting Comment Printouts.

Adjusting Comment Printouts

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 9, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


If you use comments in your worksheets quite a bit, you may wonder if there is a way to print the comments, but without the name and colon that normally preface every comment. Unfortunately, there is no built-in way to accomplish this in Excel. However, a macro can be used to quickly pull all the comments from a worksheet and place them in their own worksheet. This worksheet could then be printed, as it would amount to a compendium of all the comments. The macro is as follows:

Sub Workbook_BeforePrint(Cancel As Boolean)
    myCount = 0
    For Each c In ActiveSheet.Comments
        myCount = myCount + 1
        myComment = ActiveSheet.Comments(myCount).Text
        Sheets(2).Range("a1").Offset(myCount, 0).Value = _
          Mid(myComment,InStr(myComment, Chr(10)))
    Next
End Sub

This macro places the comments on the second worksheet in a workbook, so if you want them on a different worksheet (so you don't overwrite information already on the second sheet) you will have to make a modification to the Sheets(2) object.

Note, as well, that the macro name is Workbook_BeforePrint. This means that the macro will run every time you go to print your worksheet.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2521) 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: Adjusting Comment Printouts.

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. ...

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