While the comments and notes of Microsoft Excel let both let you do a cell anotate, they serve different purposes, work in diverse ways, and how to see on a printed Excel worksheet vary. In this guide, I will show you how to use them before summarizing their equality and differences.
The comments in the Microsoft Excel are individual-cell annotations that can be converted into a thread of the conversation-style of different comments. As a result, they are great for the collaborative worksheets.

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To add a comment to a cell that is already not one, right-click on the concerned cell, and select the “new comment”.
Alternatively, select the cell, and click on the “new comment” in the review tab on the ribbon.
Whatever path you take, a floating comment box appears where you can type your anotation.
When you click on Green Arrow or press Ctrl+Enter, the comment survives under your user name, and a purple tag is added to the top-right corner of the affected cell to indicate that a comment has been added.
To see your comments, hover your cursor on a tagged cell at any time.
You will also see that all the comments are sealing over the date and time, making them added, it becomes easier to track.
To add a comment to a thread, select the “Answer” text field, enter your additional anotation, and press Ctrl+Enter. The new comment threads cannot be made for a cell that already has a comment or thread. This prevents a cell from getting conflicting analysis.
Editing in the workbook can add any comment with permissions. People with permissions can only read comments.
If you are signed on your outfit account, then type , In the comment box, and select a colleague or colleague you want to tag and inform.
Once the thread is completed, and all the related tasks have been given action, click on three dots in the top-right corner of the first comment, and select “Sankalp Thread”. Further comments are being linked by taking this step, although you and others can still see the history of conversation by hovering on the cell.
Alternatively, to completely remove the thread, click on “delete thread”. However, use this option with caution, as you cannot restore removed threads when they have gone! You can also edit a note by clicking on the pencil icon.
After solving a thread, the cell tag turns from purple to gray, and the new comment in the review tab on the ribbon gets gray, which means that you cannot start a new comment thread for this cell.
Instead, click on the “↺” arrow in the top-right corner to reopen the thread to reopen the thread to add further comments.
To see all open and solved comments on a worksheet, show “show comments” in the review tab on the ribbon. Then, comments in the pane, you can add forward anotation to open the threads, start a new thread for selected cells, or click on the filter icon in the top-right corner to show open Or Only solved the thread.
In the active worksheet, only the comments on the cells are displayed in the pane of the comments. When you go to another worksheet through the tab at the bottom of Excel window, the comment plank updates to show the comments in that sheet.
If you want to show comment on printed versions of the worksheet, first, click on the “page setup” dialog box launcher in the corner of the page setup group. Then, in the sheet tab of the page setup dialog box, select “at the end of the sheet, and click” OK “.
When you choose this option, any note will also print in the worksheet. If the spreadsheet also includes notes, it is not possible to print only comments.
Now, after pressing Ctrl+P, scroll by the end of print preview how threads will appear in printout, and print the sheet when you are ready!

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How to use notes in Microsoft Excel
Notes in Microsoft Excel are simple annotations associated with different cells. They are usually used to add reference to the content of a cell, and they can also serve as an overflow to protect you from reducing too much information in a cell.
To add a note to a cell, right-click on the relevant cell, and choose “new note”. You cannot add a note to a cell that already contains one.
On the other hand, select the cell in which you want to add the note, and click on the new note in the review tab on the ribbon.
Then, a note box appears with a blinking cursor below your Microsoft user name where you can type anotation for that cell. Once you click on any cell in the worksheet to get out of the note editing mode.
To anonymine your note, select your user name and remove delete.
To format the font in a note, select the text either and use the formatting keyboard shortcut-like Ctrl+B for Bold, and CTRL+i-Note for Bold, Right-Click anywhere inside the note and select “Format Comment” to launch the draft dialog box.
To adjust other formatting, right-click on the edge of the note, such as changing the color of the background, selecting a different range type, or changing the text direction.
Notes in Microsoft Excel are similar to Windows Sticky Notes App, in which you can shape the text box by clicking and pulling the handle, and you can take the note anywhere inside the worksheet and pull the size by clicking the edge of the size.

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Any cell with notes has a red tag in the corner, and you can hover them at any time to see their content. When you do this, an arrow appears between the note and the cell, which it refers – a useful feature if you have a lot of notes in a worksheet.
On the other hand, you can force Excel to display all cell notes at the same time. To do this, in the Drop-Down menu of the review tab on the ribbon, click “Show all the notes”. Click on the same button to hide them again.
To amend a note, right-click on the relevant cell, and click “Edit Note”.
You can also remove a note in this right-click menu by selecting “delete note”. However, keep in mind that once you remove a note, you cannot take it back again!
If, after adding notes, you want to share your worksheet with others, you can turn notes into comments, so that the allies can add their ideas and suggestions. To do this, in the review tab on the ribbon, click on the notes> convert into comments.
Then you will see a warning that images and draft will be removed in this process. If you are fine with it, click “Convert all notes”. It is also worth indicating that you cannot convert individual notes into comments – this is a matter of all or nothing!
There are notes converted to comments No Time-stamped, since Excel added the original note when Excel did not track at all.
When you print your worksheet, to display the notes, before opening the “sheet” tab of the page setup dialog box, click on the “page setup” dialog box launcher in the corner of the page setup group.

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Then, in the print section’s comments and notes drop-down menu, choose one of the following two options:
- At the end of the sheet: It displays all comments and notes at the end of the printout, including cells, in which they refer to, the author (if available), and anotation. Choosing this option also prints any comment in the worksheet.
- As displayed on the sheet: If you have activated all notes in the notes drop-down of the review tab, then the notes will print in the same way that they appear on the screen in your workbook. The selection of this option only prints notes (no comments).
Once you are happy with your choice, click “OK”, then press Ctrl+P to print your worksheet.
Here is a summary table that shows you the similarity and difference between the comments and notes of Microsoft Excel:
Property |
Microsoft Excel Comments |
Microsoft Excel Note |
---|---|---|
Definition |
Conversation-style, threaded annotation |
Straight anotation |
Capacity |
A comment per cell thread |
A note per cell |
Cell tag color |
Purple when active; Gray when solved |
Red |
Draft |
Unavailable |
Available through keyboard shortcut or “format comment” |
Date and time tickets |
Displayed by default |
Not displayed |
Editing and removing |
Can be edited, resolved and deleted |
Can be edited and removed |
Positioning |
Connection next to the relevant cell |
Can be reposed anywhere within the worksheet |
Sort and behavior during filter |
Stay in certain cell position |
Properties can be adjusted to transfer along the cells (“draft comment”) |
size |
Text quantity |
Can be shaped manually |
Display |
Can be displayed individually (hover on cell) or collectively (“Show all notes”) |
Can be displayed individually (hover on cell) or collectively (“show” comment “) |
Oblivion |
Default to the author ID by default |
The author ID can be chosen and removed through delete key |
Change |
Can not be converted into notes |
Can be converted into comments |
Editor aid |
Spelling and grammar errors were highlighted as soon as you type |
Unavailable |
|
Can be displayed with notes at the end of a printed worksheet |
Can be displayed with comments at the end of a printed worksheet or without comments in their position on the spreadsheet |
In this guide, I discussed only two of the useful devices in the review tab in Microsoft Excel – but there are many more! For example, this is where you can check that your workbook is accessible to all, protect an individual worksheet or the entire file with a password, and track any changes made.