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: Searching Comments.
When I am creating a worksheet, it is not unusual for me to add all sorts of comments to various cells. This is a great way to keep notes and to document exactly what is going on in the worksheet. There have been workbooks I have created that include scores of comments.
If you are like me, then what is out of sight is often out of mind. This means that I can forget what I put in all the comments or—worse yet—I may remember that something is in a comment, but I don't remember the cell to which that comment is attached. Subsequently finding the right comment can be perplexing.
Fortunately, Excel makes it quite easy to search through comments in a worksheet. Simply follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
Excel locates any cells that have comments that include the desired text. The cell is selected, but the comment is not displayed. You will need to close the Find and Replace dialog box and then display the comment for the cell.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2945) 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: Searching Comments.
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2019-08-01 05:36:14
Peter
Hi,
i have Office 365 and the current version of Excel with the striped icon (in 2019)
I cannot get find text in comments in the way you described.
But I realise the problem is that comments are now called notes. Selecting Notes from the 'Look in' list worked just fine.
2019-03-24 04:18:22
Ajith Kumar
For some reason this is not working in Office 365. Used to do this in previous versions. Do I need to change something in Excel 365 to search in comments?
2016-11-22 04:53:28
Is there a possibility to find out the date when the comment was added?
2016-03-24 09:47:10
Roger Nunes
Simple and straight to the point. Thanks!
2015-12-26 02:45:42
Ashok Kumar
Thanks. It is very useful.
2015-12-15 02:02:58
Dilipkumar
Thank you, it is very useful.
Its helped me to find the text in comments by less time
2015-07-26 00:18:20
yudi
Thank you, it is very useful for me :)
2015-07-09 16:15:18
Jim
This doesn't work in Excel 2000.
2015-04-09 16:25:34
David Nguyen
The instruction is very helpful. It works for mine excel 2010. I used to use macro with older excel version and did not know the option available in excel 2010.
2014-02-06 21:12:20
ivan
thnk (y)
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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: 
Comments