Change the Appearance of Cell Notes

November 01, 2023 - by Bill Jelen

Problem: I typed a very long note in a cell. The note is longer than the note box will display. How can I read the entire note?

A note with very long text. While you are typing in the note, the default selection border around the note is a diagonal line selection border. — Figure 1395. Initially, the note box is fairly small.

Strategy: Use the resize handles while editing the note to enlarge the note.

Excel also gives you complete control over the size and appearance of the note box. When you are editing the text within the note, the border around the note is diagonal lines. If you press Press Ctrl+1 at this point, you can only control the font.

Press Ctrl+ One. If the Format Comment dialog box only has a single tab , called Font, then were still in edit more when you pressed Ctrl One — Figure 1396. Only one tab out of eight appears.

To get the complete set of formatting options, you must first left-click the diagonal lines border. This will change the diagonal lines to dots. While the border is dots, press Ctrl+One. Excel will display the complete Format Note dialog with all the tabs.

Ctrl-click on the border of the Note and the selection border changes to a series of dots. Now when you press Ctrl+One, the Format Note dialog has eight tabs: Protection, Properties, Margins, Alt Text, Font, Alignment, Colors and Lines, and Size. — Figure 1397. With a dotted note border, the Format dialog offers all.

Additional Details: You can change the yellow background. In the Format dialog, choose Colors and Lines. Open the Fill dropdown and choose Fill Effects from the bottom of the list.

In the eight-tab version of Format Note dialog, you can go to Colors and Lines. In the Fill Color drop-down choose Fill Effects... — Figure 1398. Change the note background.

You can insert a gradient and even change the transparency of the note so that the underlying cells can show through.

The Fill Effects are Gradient, Texture, Pattern, or Picture.
Here, setting up a two color gradient from Green to White. — Figure 1399. Add a gradient to the note.

Result: The note will appear with formatting different than 99.9% of the notes that people are used to seeing.

The result is a tall and wide comment (12 lines of text and wide enough to cover columnds D through G.) A gradient from green to white is applied. — Figure 1400. Larger note, with formatting.

Additional Details: It is possible to globally change the default color of all future notes, but I don’t recommend it. The note color is drawn from the Tooltip color in the Control Panel. You can edit this with Start, Control Panel, Personalization, Window Color, Advanced Appearance Settings. Open the Item dropdown and choose Tool Tip. Open the Color 1 dropdown and choose Other.... You can enter RGB values to build any color.

Gotcha: You will be amazed how many tool tips there are in Windows. The new color of the tool tips was too distracting for me. I wanted to change the color back, but the original light yellow is not offered as a standard color in the dropdown. If you want to go back to the original yellow, use these settings:

This is dangerous, but you could go to the control panel and change the ToolTip color in the section for Window Color and Appearance. — Figure 1401. Edit the note color here.

The regular yellow before you change it is: Hue=40, Sat=240, Lum=226. — Figure 1402. Use this color codes to go back to the light yellow.

This article is an excerpt from Power Excel With MrExcel

Title photo by russn_fckr on Unsplash