XL2000: Using NoteText and Comment.Text to Apply Comments (213701)

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Working Around the 255-Character Limitation of the NoteText Method

Although the NoteText method of a cell is limited to a maximum of 255 characters, you can apply a comment that is up to 32,767 characters in length to a cell. To do this, use the Text method of a Comment object that is attached to the cell. For example, instead of the following code

ActiveCell.NoteText "This is a 1000 character comment."
				

use a line of code similar to the following:

ActiveCell.Comment.Text "This is a 1000 character comment."
				

Using the NoteText Method with Comments Longer Than 255 Characters

If you use the NoteText method to apply a comment that is longer than 255 characters in length to a cell, the new comment is not applied to the cell, and you do not receive an error message.

For example, if you run a macro with the following code

ActiveCell.NoteText String(256, "x")
				

and the active cell does not already contain a comment, no comment is added to the cell because the length of the new comment would exceed 255 characters.

If you run a macro with the following code

ActiveCell.NoteText ActiveCell.NoteText & String(100, "x")
				

and the length of the existing comment exceeds 155 characters, the comment is not updated because the length of the new comment would exceed 255 characters.

NOTE: In versions of Microsoft Excel before Microsoft Excel 97, the first 255 characters of text are applied to the comment; the remaining characters are truncated.

Using Comment.Text to Change the Comment Applied to a Cell

When you use Comment.Text to change the comment applied to a cell, the cell must already have a comment applied to it. If no comment was previously applied to the cell, you receive the following error message: To apply a comment to a cell, use code similar to the following:

ActiveCell.AddComment
				

NOTE: If the active cell already has a comment applied to it, you receive the following error message when you run the code: To add a comment to a cell that may or may not contain a comment, use code similar to the following:

Sub AddACommentToTheActiveCell()

    ' The following line suppresses the run-time error message when
    ' adding a comment to a cell.
    On Error Resume Next

    ' Add a comment to the cell. If the cell already contains a comment,
    ' this line does nothing.
    ActiveCell.AddComment

    ' Return to normal error handling.
    On Error GoTo 0

    ' Add the text to the comment. If the cell already contains a
    ' comment, this is all you actually need.
    ActiveCell.Comment.Text "This is a comment."

End Sub
				

Using Comment.Text to Add New Text to an Existing Comment

If you want to add new text to an existing comment while preserving the original comment text, use a line of code similar to the following:

ActiveCell.Comment.Text ActiveCell.Comment.Text & "New Comment Text"
				

Characters over the 32,767 character limit for comments are truncated.