You can remove comments from an entire Excel worksheet without clicking each one individually. In current Excel, it is also important to distinguish modern threaded Comments from older cell annotations now called Notes.
How to Delete All Comments from an Excel Worksheet
- Select the entire worksheet. Click the Select All button where the row numbers and column letters meet.
- Open the Review tab.
- Use the Comments controls to delete comments. Depending on your Excel version, the available command can delete the selected comments or let you work through the comments pane.
- Confirm that no comments remain.
Remove Notes as Well
If the workbook came from an older version of Excel, what you think of as “comments” may now be classified as Notes. On the Review tab, use the Notes commands to show and delete those annotations separately.
Comments and Notes Are Not the Same
Modern Excel Comments are designed for conversations and can include replies and author information. Notes are the older annotation system that was called comments in earlier Excel releases. Removing one type does not necessarily remove the other.
Delete Only Certain Comments
If you need to preserve some feedback, do not use a whole-sheet removal workflow. Select the relevant cell or open the Comments pane, review the discussion, and delete only the comments you no longer need.
Make a Backup Before Bulk Removal
Comments can contain review decisions, explanations, or other information that is not duplicated in the cells. Save a copy of an important workbook before deleting annotations in bulk, especially when other people contributed to the file.
Deleting comments does not clear cell values or ordinary formatting. It removes the associated discussion/annotation content.
Matt Jacobs has been working as an IT consultant for small businesses since receiving his Master’s degree in 2003. While he still does some consulting work, his primary focus now is on creating technology support content for SupportYourTech.com.
His work can be found on many websites and focuses on topics such as Microsoft Office, Apple devices, Android devices, Photoshop, and more.