How to Delete All Comments and Notes in Excel at Once
To delete all comments in Excel, select every sheet tab, then use Home > Clear > Clear Comments and Notes. Threaded comments and Notes differ.
2026-04-28
The "comments accumulated over years" problem
A workbook passes through eight people over a decade. Every tab carries little red triangles: "ask Steve about this," "follow up after April close." Steve left years ago, and the file is going to an external auditor Friday.
To delete all comments in Excel, there's a built-in command that does it in four clicks, though one distinction trips people up first: getting it wrong is why comments sometimes look deleted but aren't.
TL;DR: Key takeaways
- Home > Clear > Clear Comments and Notes wipes both types. Group all sheet tabs first to cover the whole workbook in one action.
- Excel 365 splits them: threaded comments are conversations with a Reply box, Notes are the old yellow boxes.
- Document Inspector strips comments across the whole file, the right tool before sending a workbook out.
- A free macro clears Notes with a confirmation prompt and a count, but not threaded comments.
- Macro deletion can't be undone, since running any macro clears Excel's undo stack.
Comments or Notes?
In Excel 365, what used to be a "comment" is now a Note (small red triangle, yellow box), and Comment was reassigned to a threaded conversation with a Reply box (small purple marker). Microsoft explains the split in its threaded comments and notes guide: every comment from an older workbook became a Note. Files that have lived in SharePoint or Teams with several editors often have both, which is exactly when deleting one type and assuming you're done goes wrong.
Method 1: Clear Comments and Notes
- Ctrl + A twice to select the whole sheet.
- Home > Clear (the eraser icon) > Clear Comments and Notes.
For the entire workbook, group the sheets first: click the first tab, hold Shift, click the last, then run the same command once across all of them. Ungroup afterward (right-click a tab > Ungroup Sheets), or you risk typing into every tab at once. Watch out for Clear's neighbours, Clear All and Clear Formats strip more than you want.
Method 2: Document Inspector, before sending a file out
File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document, then find Comments and Annotations and Remove All. Per Microsoft's guide to removing hidden data, this also flags document properties, author names, and hidden sheets, usually the bigger exposure when a file leaves the company. No undo, so work on a copy.
Method 3: The free macro
Download Clear All Comments. Free .xlsm, runs offline. Save first, this can't be undone.
- Select the range, Alt + F8, pick
ClearAllComments, click Run. - Confirm at the prompt. A popup reports how many it deleted.
It deletes anything in cell.Comment, which means Notes only, not threaded comments. If your workbook has 365-style conversations, Method 1 is the right tool instead. What the macro adds is the confirmation prompt and count: Clear Comments and Notes fires silently, so you never learn whether you removed 4 or 400.
A real example
A controller at a property management firm sends the master accounting workbook to outside CPAs every February. It has 18 tabs and roughly 200 Notes accumulated since 2014, some naming former staff. Grouping all 18 tabs and running Clear Comments and Notes once, then Document Inspector for the author metadata, takes about two minutes against the old routine of right-clicking each one by hand.
Frequently asked questions
How do I delete all comments in Excel at once?
Ctrl + A twice, then Home > Clear > Clear Comments and Notes. For the whole workbook, Shift-click to group every sheet tab first, then run the same command once.
What's the difference between comments and notes in Excel?
Comments are threaded conversations with a Reply box; Notes are the old yellow annotation boxes. Every comment made in Excel 2019 or earlier became a Note. They sit under separate Review tab menus, which is why deleting one type can leave the other behind.
Can I undo deleting comments?
By hand or ribbon, Ctrl + Z usually brings them back. Via macro, no: running any VBA clears the undo stack entirely. Save a copy first.
Why are comments still showing after I deleted them all?
The workbook likely holds both types and you only cleared one. Check the Review tab: if Comments still shows entries while Notes is empty, threaded comments survived. Clear Comments and Notes removes both.
How do I find every comment before deleting?
Run Highlight Cells With Comments to make them visible at a glance first. Worth doing on any workbook you didn't build; see how to audit an inherited Excel workbook.
What to do next
Work on a copy. If the file is heading outside the company, run Document Inspector rather than just clearing comments. Otherwise, group the tabs and delete all comments in Excel with one pass of Clear Comments and Notes.