Add Notes in Excel

You never know how long your spreadsheet will be used, or who will use it. To make handing off a spreadsheet easier, you should add notes in Excel. Think of them like the breadcrumbs that give clues to how the spreadsheet works.

Don’t rely on your memory when you use Microsoft Excel. Instead, leave yourself the notes you need with the help of our tutorial. Let’s learn how to add notes in Excel.

Add Notes in Excel

Notes are added to cells in Excel. Click inside a cell, then right click and choose New Note to add a note to a specific cell.

You’ll see a new yellow window resembling. sticky note. Type your note in the new box, and you’re finished!

Notice that cells with a note have a red triangle in the corner. You can hover over a cell to see the notes in the cell.

View or Hide Notes in Excel

You might notice that your notes won’t show after you click away from the cell. It’s still in the cell (shown by the red triangle,) but what if you want to see all notes?

There’s an easy option for that. Make sure you’re working on the Review tab. Click on the Notes dropdown and choose Show All Notes. Any notes in your spreadsheet will show simultaneously.

Of course, you can toggle the option off with the same menu.

One Last Note

One last note: don’t confuse the Excel notes feature with comments. In comparison, comments are used to leave specific points of feedback to other spreadsheet users. It’s best to use a comment to ask a question, like asking another user to explain a figure in a spreadsheet. Comments are threaded and included replies between users, and are typically “closed” when reviewed.

Remember to use notes in Excel to leave the breadcrumbs you need to understand your spreadsheet. Whether you’re reminding yourself of an assumption or how you calculated a figure, it’s sure to prevent errors.