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 August 2, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

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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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 two more than 1?

2014-08-28 17:26:20

Mary Physics

I use Excel to track the classes I do equipment setups for at a local college as a technician. It's all on 1 spread sheet. Columns are class names, rows are weeks in the semester. It's a 10 x 15 matrix (not counting extra info outside that part of the whole spreadsheet), more or less, with columns hidden if classes don't run. Most of the cells have comments with setup instructions to workers in them, & they are long, listing all items needed & physical descriptions, in case pictures don't come up. I don't want to print all comments at once, but only 1 or 2 as I need to. How can I print individual comment contents, especially if they are longer than the screen is long - as in what 'select all' (CTRL-A) used to do in Edit, but inside a comment, not only in the whole Excel worksheet. Thanks.


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