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How to Filter Cells with Notes in Excel for Microsoft 365?

Author Zhoumandy Last modified

For users of "Excel for Microsoft 365", you may notice that "comments" are now different from the ones in earlier versions of Excel, like Excel 2021. In Excel 365, Comments are threaded and used for discussions with other people. And Comments come with a Reply box. Looking for the old Comments? They are now called Notes. Notes work the same as Comments in earlier Excel versions. You can add annotations and reminders in cells with Notes. So here comes the question: how do you" filter cells with notes in Excel for Microsoft 365"? In the tutorial, we will show you one quick way to get the job done.

A screenshot showing Excel cells with notes filtered

Filter Cells with Notes by Creating a Helper Column

Filter Cells with Notes by Creating a Helper Column

To filter only the rows with notes, you can first identify the Notes cells using a "User Defined Function", and then apply the "Filter" function..
A screenshot showing Excel cells with notes

1. Press the "Alt" + "F11" keys in Excel, and it opens the "Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications" window.

2. Click "Insert" > "Module" and paste the following macro in the "Module" Window.

VBA code: Identify the cells which contain notes

Function HasComment(r As Range)
'Update 20220716
    Application.Volatile True
    HasComment = Not r.Comment Is Nothing
End Function

3. Save the code and close the Module window.

4. Go back to the worksheet and copy the formula below into cell C2, then press the "Enter" key to get the result.

=HasComment(B2,C5)

5. Select this result cell and drag its autofill handle down to get the rest of the results. "TRUE" stands for the cells which have notes and "FALSE" indicates no notes.
A screenshot of Excel showing TRUE/FALSE results for cells with notes after applying a formula

6. Select the data range, then click "Data" > "Filter".
A screenshot of the Data Filter option in Excel to filter cells with notes

7. Click the "drop-down arrow" of the "helper column", and check "TRUE" option only. Then click the "OK" button to finish the filtering.
A screenshot showing the filter dropdown with TRUE box selected

8. Now you can see the filtered results of rows with notes only. You can delete the helper column C as you need.
A screenshot showing the filtered results of rows with notes in Excel

Notes:

  1. In the VBA code of Step 2, comment means note in Excel for Microsoft 365 because a note here is the same as a comment in other versions of Excel. The formula in Step 3 is likewise.
  2. If you want to filter cells with comments in earlier versions of Excel, this method also works.

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