Worksheet cell importance tagging

rog-PMP 

OK. I see what you're doing.

Unless I'm missing something--so far as I can tell, there are no actual Excel functions being used here, no formulas to add, subtract, multiply, divide, compare, check--what you're doing is taking advantage of the fact that Excel has a very useful array of rows and columns, arrayed as cells, some of which can be combined to make nice headings....you're using Excel to organize and display disparate data to facilitate tracking of a project or two (or more).

That's fine. But it's not really using Excel for what Excel was created for.

Normally when I see somebody using Excel this way I suggest that they go to PowerPoint or Word, each of which can also display rows and columns, though to a more limited extent.

In your case, you've got so many of those cells that I can see why you're choosing to "use" Excel. I can also see why some of your colleagues don't find all of them equally significant, why, in other words, you came with your question. I also would fully concur with your observation that you're "creating clutter."

So to your original question, there IS a way to have users comment on individual cells in a worksheet (on the "Insert" menu, you'll see the option to insert Comments. Just position the cursor in any cell and select that choice from the menu.

But given the extent of this worksheet, asking people to insert comments on this would magnify the problem. You could ask them to use the background color choices to highlight in green, yellow, or red based on perceived importance. I truly think the better approach would be to convene a meeting with a few representative users and just do it collectively.