How To Delete Comments In Excel: A Complete Guide For All Versions

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You Just Added a Comment in Excel and Now Need to Remove It

It happens to everyone. You’re collaborating on a budget spreadsheet, reviewing a project timeline, or finalizing a report. You drop a comment to ask a question, provide context, or flag a number for your colleague. The work moves forward, the question gets answered, and now that little red triangle in the corner of the cell is just visual clutter. Or worse, you’ve inherited a workbook from someone else, and it’s peppered with outdated notes you don’t need.

Knowing how to cleanly delete comments in Excel is a fundamental skill for maintaining professional, readable spreadsheets. While adding a comment is intuitive, the method for removing one isn’t always obvious, especially with the shift from the old “Comment” feature to the newer “Threaded Notes” in modern versions. This guide will walk you through every method, for every version of Excel, so you can declutter your sheets with confidence.

Understanding Excel’s Comment and Note System

Before you start deleting, it’s crucial to know what you’re looking at. Microsoft has changed how annotations work over the years, which is the root of much confusion.

In Excel for Microsoft 365 and Excel 2021, there are two distinct features:

Notes (The New “Comments”): These are the simple, sticky-note style annotations. They replaced the legacy “Comments” and are intended for straightforward notes or descriptions. When you right-click a cell and choose “New Note,” you add one of these.
Threaded Comments: These are designed for conversation. They appear in a panel on the side of the window, allow @mentions to tag colleagues, and can have reply threads. You add these via “New Threaded Comment.”

In older versions of Excel (2019 and earlier), the terminology was reversed. What is now called a “Note” was called a “Comment,” and the threaded conversation feature didn’t exist. The methods to delete them differ slightly. Don’t worry—we’ll cover all scenarios.

Identifying What’s in Your Cell

Look at the indicator. A small red triangle in the top-right corner of a cell traditionally meant a legacy comment (now called a Note). In modern Excel, you might see a purple comment icon for threaded conversations, or the red triangle for notes. Hovering over the cell will reveal the content and often a header indicating “Note” or a person’s name for a threaded comment.

How to Delete a Single Comment or Note

This is the most common task. You have one annotation you want to remove.

Method 1: Using the Right-Click Context Menu (Fastest)

This is the universal method that works in nearly all versions.

Select the cell containing the comment or note you wish to delete.
Right-click on the cell to open the context menu.
Look for one of the following options:
- Delete Comment (in older Excel versions)
- Delete Note (in Excel for Microsoft 365/2021)
- Delete Threaded Comment (if it’s a threaded conversation)
The menu option will change based on what the cell actually contains.
Click the appropriate delete command. The indicator (red triangle or purple icon) will immediately disappear from the cell.

Method 2: Using the Review Tab on the Ribbon

The Review tab is the command center for all things related to spreadsheet markup and is especially useful if you have many comments to manage.

Select the cell with the annotation.
Navigate to the Review tab on the Excel ribbon.
In the “Comments” group, you will find the delete button. The icon is a trash can with an “X”.
The button’s label may say “Delete” or “Delete Comment.” Click it. If the selected cell has a threaded comment, you will get a dropdown asking if you want to “Delete Threaded Comment” or “Delete Note.” Choose the correct one.

Using the Review tab is excellent because it keeps your focus on the task of comment management, and the “Next” and “Previous” buttons there help you navigate through all annotations in a sheet quickly.

How to Delete All Comments and Notes in a Worksheet

Sometimes, you need a clean slate. Maybe you’re preparing a final version for a client, or you’ve used comments for personal tracking and no longer need them. Deleting them one by one is impractical.

Using “Go To Special” for Legacy Comments/Notes

This powerful method selects every cell containing a specific type of content, allowing you to delete them all at once.

Click the small triangle at the intersection of the row numbers and column letters (or press Ctrl+A) to select the entire worksheet.
Go to the Home tab, click “Find & Select” in the Editing group, and choose “Go To Special…” from the dropdown. Alternatively, press F5 and click “Special…”.
In the “Go To Special” dialog box, select the option for Comments. In older Excel, this selects legacy comments. In Excel 365, this selects Notes.
Click “OK.” Excel will now select every single cell in the sheet that contains a Note (legacy comment).
With all comment cells selected, go to the Review tab and click “Delete.” Or, right-click on any selected cell and choose “Delete Note.” All notes will be removed instantly.

Clearing All Threaded Comments

Threaded comments are managed a bit differently because they are stored as part of a collaborative thread object.

Go to the Review tab.
In the Comments group, click the small downward arrow on the “Delete” button.
From the dropdown menu, select Delete All Threaded Comments in Sheet.
Excel will ask for confirmation. Click “Delete” to proceed. This action will remove every threaded comment conversation from the entire active worksheet.

Troubleshooting Common Comment Deletion Issues

What if the delete option is grayed out? Or you can’t seem to select the right thing? Let’s solve those problems.

The Delete Option is Grayed Out (Disabled)

This is almost always a permissions issue. If the workbook is shared or protected, or if the comment was created by another user in a restricted environment, you may not have the rights to delete it.

Check Workbook Protection: Go to the Review tab and see if “Unprotect Sheet” or “Unprotect Workbook” is an option. If it is, you need the password to unprotect it before you can modify comments.
Check File Permissions: If the file is stored on a SharePoint or OneDrive with unique permissions, ensure you have “Edit” access, not just “View” access.
Inherited Workbook: Some templates or downloaded workbooks have structure protection. You may need to contact the original author.

You Accidentally Deleted the Wrong Thing

If you delete a comment by mistake, your immediate recourse is the Undo command.

Press Ctrl+Z immediately. This will restore the most recently deleted comment.
Excel’s Undo stack is limited, so act quickly. If you’ve performed other actions after the deletion, Undo may not reach it.
There is no “Recycle Bin” for deleted comments within Excel. Once they’re gone from the Undo history, they are permanently removed.

Comments Are Hidden and You Can’t See Them to Delete

Comments and notes can be set not to show their indicators.

Go to File > Options > Advanced.
Scroll down to the “Display” section.
Look for “For cells with comments, show:” Ensure that “Indicators only, and comments on hover” or “Comments and notes on hover” is selected, not “No comments or notes.”
You can also toggle indicator visibility from the Review tab by clicking “Show All Comments.”

Advanced Techniques and Best Practices

Beyond simple deletion, a pro knows how to manage comments strategically.

Using VBA Macro to Delete All Comments

For power users who need to clean many sheets regularly, a simple VBA macro is the ultimate tool.

Sub DeleteAllNotes()
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
        ws.Cells.ClearNotes
    Next ws
End Sub

To use this:

Press Alt+F11 to open the VBA editor.
Go to Insert > Module.
Paste the code above into the module window.
Close the editor. You can run this macro from the Developer tab or assign it to a button. Warning: This action cannot be undone with Ctrl+Z. Always save a backup copy of your workbook before running macros.

Converting Old Comments to New Notes

If you open an older workbook in Excel 365, you might be prompted to convert legacy comments to the new Notes format. It’s generally a good idea to do this for compatibility. Once converted, you delete them using the “Delete Note” command. If you skip conversion, the old “Delete Comment” command will still work.

When Not to Delete: Hiding vs. Removing

Deletion is permanent. Sometimes, you just want to clean up the view for printing or presentation without losing the information.

For Printing: Go to Page Layout > Page Setup > Sheet tab. Under “Comments,” choose “(None)” from the dropdown. This prints the sheet without comments.
For Viewing: On the Review tab, click “Show All Comments” to toggle the comment pane off. The indicators remain, but the pop-ups won’t show.
Consider copying the comment text into a dedicated “Documentation” column or a separate worksheet log before mass deletion if the information might be needed for audit trails.

Your Spreadsheet is Now Clean and Professional

Managing comments—from adding context to removing clutter—is a key part of mastering Excel. Whether you’re cleaning up a single stray note or wiping an entire sheet of old feedback, you now have the complete toolkit. Remember the core distinction between Notes and Threaded Comments in modern Excel, and use the “Go To Special” feature for large-scale cleanup. Before any major deletion, especially with macros, make it a habit to save a backup version of your file. With these steps, you can ensure your final spreadsheets are as clear and actionable as the data they contain, free from the distraction of outdated annotations.

Your next step? Open a workbook you’ve been meaning to clean up. Use the Review tab to navigate through its comments, decide which to keep and which to delete, and apply the right method. A few minutes of cleanup can significantly elevate the professionalism of your work.