Edit comments not working for certain cells in a column

[mbsurfer]

I try to edit comments in cells of a certain column and nothing happens. I am able to edit other comments throughout the spreadsheet, but when I select "edit comments" for these particular cells, no edit box is displayed for editing. It worked fine a couple of weeks ago.

[shg]

Cells locked and sheet protected?

[teylyn]

have you checked if cells are protected?

[mbsurfer]

Additional Information:
The comment of a cell becomes "uneditable". I can see the comment as a tooltip if I hover above the cell, however if I select it and press Shift+F2 to edit its comment, nothing happens (the tooltip just "blinks" at every press). This is the first time this has happened in this spreadsheet. I've been editiing these same comments once a month for 4 years. Only certain cells in a certain column are affected. I am still able to edit other cells in the same spreadsheet.

I should mention that I have not protected the workbook/worksheet, thus no cells are locked (although I did try protecting/unprotecting and locking/unlocking just to see whether this solves anything - it does not).

What's interesting is that if I choose to Show All Comments, then all the comments can be edited - not by choosing Edit Comment or pressing Shift+F2 (that still doesn't do anything) but by directly clicking inside the visible comment. Since I have lots of comments in my sheet, however, I would rather not have them visible all the time.

Has anyone come across this problem, and if so, managed to find a workaround for it? Anticipated thanks!

Some of this text is copied from another user with problem titled "Bug in Excel". I'm having the exact same problem. His issue was listed here on 31 Jan 09 without yet having a solution.

I can't attach the complete spreadsheet because it's too large, but was able to create a sample file. The comment on the left works fine, but the comment on the right is un-editable. See if the problem still shows up when you try.

Thanks for any help you can provide. I've started copying the comments, deleting the comments, then creating another comment in the same cell and it works fine after I do that. It's going to be a long process to straighten out all of the un-editable comments if a solution cannot be found. I've been using Excel for 25 years and have never seen this bug before.

[shg]

I see the same behavior you do, and have found several other examples on the web -- but have no suggestion, sorry.

Was the workbook ever shared?

What did you do to create the example?

[mbsurfer]

Thanks for taking a look at this problem.

This is a shared document with probably over 50 users having editing access. Although I am the only person that edits these particular comments, anyone could.

I created the example by the work around described. I have to select show comment, then I can edit, then go back and hide comment. I am able copy and paste the problem anywhere I want it.

[martindwilson]

same as shg, but it looks like sharing may be the problem, trouble is cant recreate it on a single pc.

[shg]

I believe in shared workbooks, you cannot edit comments created before the workbook was shared.

I guess unsharing restores the ability to edit the comments, but not all the way.

[mbsurfer]

I'm sorry, I did not use the shared workbook feature in Excel. The file is available to multiple users on a network to check out and edit one at a time (DominoDoc). In that way, we share edit rights, but I did not use the share workook feature in Excel. I had to read up on it because I've never used that feature. I did not mean to mislead you by my ignorance.

[martindwilson]

i think you need to ask dominodoc what they do with excel when its saved.
i notice that when you do show/hide comments then hide
it doesnt hide until you right click the cell suggesting there is some hidden code in there somewhere

[crabbon]

I too am having this EXACT problem. I have thousands of comments, so redoing them is not acceptable. This has to be a BUG in Excel 2007. It might have even existed in the previous versions... as I seem to have read that someone had the problem in Excel 2000.

Either way, if anyone can fix this, I'd be MOST IMPRESSED. I've tried a bunch of things, and the best that I can find is to copy the contents of the comment into the clipboard, then delete the comment, and recreate it. No happy campber here with that solution.

[shg]

Welcome to the forum.

Please take a few minutes to read the forum rules, and then start your own thread.

Thanks.