How to Delete All Comments in Excel

The "comments accumulated over years" problem

A workbook gets edited by 8 different people over its lifetime. Every tab has dozens of comments: "ask Steve about this", "from Joan, 2019", "follow up after April close". Steve and Joan don't work there anymore. Before sharing the file externally, you want the comments gone.

TL;DR — Key takeaways

• Right-click > Delete Comment removes one at a time.
• F5 > Special > Comments > Delete selects all and lets you batch-delete on the active sheet.
• A VBA macro clears every comment in your selection across any number of cells, with a confirmation prompt before deletion.

Method 1: Right-click > Delete Comment

For a single cell:

1. Right-click the cell with the comment.
2. Click Delete Comment.

Repeat for each comment. For 200 comments, this is 200 right-clicks.

Method 2: F5 > Special > Comments

Bulk method on the active sheet:

1. Select all (Ctrl+A) on the sheet.
2. Press F5 to open Go To.
3. Click Special.
4. Check Comments, click OK. Every commented cell is now selected.
5. Right-click any selected cell > Delete Comment.

Bulk-deletes all comments on the active sheet. For multi-tab workbooks, repeat per tab.

The catch: active sheet only. And the menu sequence is fiddly enough that most people forget the steps after a month.

Method 3: The free VBA macro

Download Clear All Comments. Free .xlsm with one macro.

Save the workbook first — comment deletion is irreversible.

1. Select the range. Ctrl+A (twice) for whole sheet.
2. Alt + F8, pick the macro, click Run.
3. Confirm when prompted.
4. The macro deletes every comment in the selection.

For multi-tab workbooks, repeat per tab. Each tab takes about 1 second.

A common scenario: pre-audit cleanup

Controller about to send the master accounting workbook to outside CPAs. Workbook has 200 comments accumulated over 12 years.

1. Save a backup copy.
2. On each of the 18 tabs, Ctrl+A twice, run Clear All Comments.
3. Save with _audit_copy filename.

Versus right-click on each comment: about 35 minutes versus 3 minutes.

Frequently asked questions

Will it delete threaded comments (Microsoft 365 conversation kind)?

No, only legacy Notes. Threaded comments use a different VBA property that's not reliably available across Excel versions. For most inherited workbooks the comments are Notes anyway.

Can I undo it?

No. Comment deletion isn't undoable in Excel. Save before running. If you forgot to save and need a comment back, your only options are restoring from backup or recreating from memory.

What about Track Changes / cell history?

The macro only deletes Comments. Excel's separate Track Changes feature has its own log; this macro doesn't touch it.

Can I delete by author (only my comments, keep others')?

Not by default. To filter by author, edit the .bas source: add If cell.Comment.Author = "Your Name" inside the loop. About a 2-line change.

What if I want to keep some comments and delete others?

Run Highlight Cells With Comments first to see all of them. Manually delete the ones you want gone. Then run Clear All Comments on the rest. Or just delete each manually.

What to do next

Before deleting all comments, audit them first with Highlight Cells With Comments. The two macros pair: highlight to audit, clear to clean up.