Forum Discussion
notes attached to cells not visible, broken since last excel update (Office 365 on Mac)
I've got many notes (the yellow non-threaded formerly called comments) in my excel sheets. Since the latest software update I can not display/view my notes anymore.
The cells containing note still show the red triangle-mark, but the note does not show up when I mouse over. By clicking "show all notes" in the ribbon menu, it will just only show the connection lines between cell and invisible note rectangle. But I can not access view or even edit the notes.
Also right click on the cell -> edit note does not show anything.
is there a fix or at least a workaround existing?
regards
dewege
macos: high sierra,
excel (office 365) version 16.21.1 (190123)
24 Replies
If you copy the cell to another one (preferably a blank one!) you will be able to see the expansion tags there. Now copy and paste it back to where it belongs, and it will be accessible. Very boring if you have lots - I only had a few random offenders. In the end, the notes were uninteresting, so not worth the trouble. Its still annoying.
I had the same problem with Office 365 on my Desktop computer. I would hover the cross over the cell with the note, the arrow pops up pointing to the cell but no note. I had hundreds of notes in my spreadsheet, and none would display. I tried all the suggestions in this thread and none worked.
Now, I also use office365 on my Laptop. The offending spreadsheet has always been stored in a dropbox folder. I found when I opened the dropbox file with my Laptop, I could now see all my notes. I then saved the spreadsheet to a new file in dropbox. When I opened the new file with my Desktop, the problem was gone. All my notes were visible. So I closed both files, renamed the new file back the original file name, and now all the notes appear in the file with the original name. Whether I open it with my Desktop or my Laptop.
In my case it turned out that the Note textbox changed it's dimensions and reduced the height to pixel = 1. That's the reason why I saw only the arrows.
Here's what I did to fix it:
1. Right Click on the affected cell --> Show/Hide Note (to have the arrow visible on the screen)
2. Right Click on the affected cell --> Edit Note
3. Zoom in so you can see the very thin hairline that looks to be note textbox.
4. Click on it so the little resizing points appear on the screen.
5. Drag one of them down so the Note appears.
Hope this helps!
I have figured out the root cause of the problem I have experienced, I don't know whether it will apply to everyone with the similar problems:
Starting from Office 2016 and Office 365 Microsoft changed the way comments worked on the cells. New commenting feature has additional features like replying and resolving to comments called "threaded comments". The problem is that you can't see these comments using an earlier version of Office, in my case Office 2013 pro. I suspect even you have a compatible office version you need to be sign in to office 365 with a Microsft account. The thing is, you can actually see and just can't, but since you can't edit the document you can't resize the comment popup window so that you can see the rest of content (your comment). The reason is Microsoft alters your document puts a reminder in before each of your comments that says “you can actually read the comment but not edit bla bla ”, but this reminder is the only thing visible unless you resize that window which you can't. So the actual content of the comment is unreadable.The option/solution which does not have this problem for newer versions of Office is: commenting by not choosing “insert comment” but “new note” in the context menu of a cell. Unlike the earlier versions of office this classical way of doing things is renamed from "insert comment" to "new note". So when you use the new office and excel for the first time, you unsuspectingly comment with the "new comment" tool but it's a new thing that does not work as the old comment feature and practically you can't see the contents, and definitely can't edit with earlier versions and un-signed-in office 365 versions. You need to use “new comment” to avodi future headaches and to be able to see it when using earlier versions of office and un-signed-in office 365 Excel.
In my opinion this is blunder for Microsfot which was the champion of backward compatibility.edit: you can resize the comment window and see the rest of the comment and your content with office 2013 but you can realize this after days of frustration. You still cant see the content if you are not signed in to office 365..
Thanks for all the info, but here's what happened:
I clicked the icon "Show comments" in the Ribbon, and got a message in the sidebar pane: "There are no Comments in this file." This is not surprising, since I always use "New Note" rather than "Comment."Then I went back and re-read a post from earlier in this thread: I selected the errant cell, then hit "Edit Note" in the ribbon. That brought up the callout line, terminating in an invisible note. At that point I was able to grab the "stem" line and stretch it open (sort of like pulling down a window shade), and voila! There was my Note. The problem I ran into previously was that simply clicking the affected cell brought up the "stem" line, but the instant I moved the Plus-shaped cursor out of the cell in an attempt to grab the stem line, the line disappeared! The way to evoke the stem line and make it stay on screen is to click "Edit Note" in the Ribbon.
So I eventually got there. Thanks to all for your help!!
Jim6373My issue is that "edit notes" does nothing on any cell in one particular column that has cells with notes. No stem lines, no notes appearing, no nothing. The column has different formatting on different rows -- it is not a consistently formatted column. The formatting is similar to adjacent columns that are not having this issue -- notes show fine in the adjacent columns. Very bizarre that this one column would not show notes when I click 'edit notes'.
The only way to see my notes in that column is to select "show/hide all notes", in which case the dozens of notes I have all appear at once in a jumbled mess. I have all updates installed and rebooting did not help.
- I know this post is old, but we just had this issue. We're on Windows 10 Pro, with Microsoft 365. The line for the note was visible, but nothing suggested here worked for us. My coworker decided to click and drag to the right on the line, basically like it was a textbox collapsed and IT WORKED. The note was there, just squished into one line on the left.
- I have dozens of yellow sticky Notes on each of my Excel worksheets. None of them displays upon mousing over. This is been going on for several months. There are no lines drawn to squished notes - I am familiar with that situation. The notes simply do not appear, rather they flash on and off a Split Second when the mouse hovers. I do not see why I need to go to some panel click to show notes in order to read these what happened to the old-fashioned way of having them come up upon mousing? And yes, I have the proper setting in Options Advanced ...display on Hover. Running 365, and have the latest updates.
- that's terrible. I have same problem. I put some critical data as notes in the forms of comments and they are not accessible in my new computer with office 2013, I upgraded to 2016, not better.
Thank you, you are a lifesaver. I've got an order book I have been working on since 2017 with over 4000 lines with so many notes and they are important ones so this really helped!
Thanks simmed
Actually, I reported the problem to Microsoft. Then a couple weeks ago I received an email saying I had a private message from them. I could never find the message. But, then I noticed the problem was fixed. I can now hover over and view the contents of the note. Even after I have accessed a hyperlink. I then remembered that there was a MS update a few days previous to the email from MS. So, maybe that was the fix. Not sure. But it works now. So, I am happy!!
I am using a PC but have been having a very similar issue. I have discovered that when I open my SS I can hover over the red triangle and the Note contents will show. But, as soon as I access a hyperlink... and return to my SS... the Note will no longer display when I hover. My only work around is to close and then re-open my SS.
I have reported this twice. But, so far... no response.
I have had this problem too. What I found worked was to copy the cell to a new tab. The Note will show up there (though I had to move the frame buttons to make the square visible). Then I copied the cell back to the original tab. This fixed the issue for me. Hope this helps.
you’re welcome. I have also found if I just copy the cell to a blank cell and then copy it back I can access the note.
Update: I realize this is an old thread, but I 'Unhid' all the rows. After I did that, I was able to right click and edit the notes.
I have faced this problem recently.
Only "Delete Note" option is available in context menu.
If you want to add a new note, please go to the Review menu, the Note option is listed there.
I have same issue. It looks like MS was nudging users off the old yellow notes feature (which I use a LOT) toward the "comments" side-bar approach. I hate it when developers get a "good idea" and force us to change, especially with no notice or transition support. This is a HUGE pain. But, will MS notice? I doubt it.
