How to Remove Notes from Excel Template

Ever inherit an Excel file dotted with little red triangles in the corners of cells, each hiding an old note? While these notes can be incredibly helpful for providing context, they often need to be removed when you're repurposing a template or sending a report to a client. This guide will show you several quick and easy ways to remove notes from your Excel templates, whether you need to delete one, a select few, or all of them at once.

First, What Are Notes and Why Remove Them?

In Excel, a "Note" is a small text box that appears when you hover over a cell that has one attached. It's like a digital sticky note, perfect for adding reminders, explanations, or instructions without cluttering up the cell's actual content. A small red triangle in the top-right corner of a cell is the visual cue that a note is present.

You may have also seen or used "Comments." In recent versions of Excel (especially Microsoft 365), Microsoft rebranded the original "notes" feature to Notes and introduced a new, threaded conversation feature called Comments. For the purpose of removing them, the process is very similar, and we'll cover both.

So, why would you need to delete them? Here are a few common scenarios:

Reusing a Template: You're starting a new project with an old template and the existing notes are no longer relevant.
Professional Presentation: You need to send a clean spreadsheet to a client, manager, or stakeholders, and the internal notes aren't meant for them.
Data Privacy: Notes might contain sensitive information or internal chatter that shouldn't be shared outside the team.
Reducing Clutter: Sometimes, you just want a clean slate to work from without the visual noise of red triangles everywhere.

Whatever your reason, getting rid of them is simple once you know the tricks.

Method 1: Removing a Single Note

Let's start with the most basic task: deleting one note. This is quick and straightforward if you only have one or two to clear out.

Navigate to the cell that contains the note you want to remove. You'll see the red indicator triangle in the corner.
Right-click on the cell.
From the context menu that appears, simply select Delete Note.

That's it! The note and the red triangle will disappear from the cell.

Method 2: Deleting Multiple Specific Notes

What if you want to delete a handful of notes but leave others intact? You could repeat the single-delete method, but it's much faster to select them all first and delete them in one go.

Click on the first cell containing a note you want to delete.
Hold down the Ctrl key (or Cmd key on a Mac).
While holding the key, click on each of the other cells containing notes you want to remove. This allows you to select multiple cells that aren't next to each other.
Once you've selected all the desired cells, release the Ctrl/Cmd key.
Right-click on any of the selected cells.
From the context menu, choose Delete Note.

This action will remove the notes from all the cells you selected, saving you from having to do them one by one.

Pro Tip: Show All Notes at Once to See What You're Deleting

If your sheet is large and you're not sure where all the notes are, you can make them all visible at once. Go to the Review tab in the Excel ribbon. In the Notes section, click Show All Notes. This makes it much easier to scan the sheet and decide which ones to select and delete.

Method 3: Deleting All Notes on a Worksheet Instantly

When you're cleaning up a template, you'll often want to get rid of every single note on a worksheet. There's a powerful feature called "Go To Special" that makes this incredibly fast.

Using the "Go To Special" Feature

This is the most efficient method for a bulk cleanup of a single sheet.

Make sure you are on the worksheet you want to clean.
Go to the Home tab on the ribbon. At the far right, click Find & Select, then choose Go To Special... from the dropdown menu.
Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut: press Ctrl + G (or F5) to open the "Go To" dialog box, then click the "Special..." button.
In the "Go To Special" window, select the bubble next to Notes.
Click OK.

Excel will instantly highlight every cell on the current worksheet that contains a note. Now that they are all selected, you just need to delete them:

With all the cells still highlighted, go to the Review tab.
In the Notes group, click the Delete button. (Some older versions might just list this option under the "New Note" button).
Alternatively, after the cells are selected, you can simply right-click on any one of them and select Delete Note from the context menu.

In a few clicks, every note on your sheet is gone. Just remember, this only applies to the active worksheet. If your workbook has notes on other sheets, you'll need to repeat the process for each one.

A Quick Word on Threaded "Comments"

As mentioned earlier, modern Excel has two features: Notes (old-style) and Comments (new, threaded style). The good news is that the process for removing threaded comments is nearly identical.

To delete a single threaded comment, right-click the cell and select Delete Comment.
To delete them all at once on a sheet, use the Go To Special method described above, but in the dialog box, select Comments instead of Notes.

After Excel selects all cells with comments, you can go to the Review tab and click the Delete button in the Comments section to remove them all.

Method 4: The Ultimate Cleanup with "Inspect Document"

If you're preparing a workbook to be shared externally and need absolute certainty that all sensitive or temporary information—including every single note and comment across the entire file—is gone, the "Inspect Document" tool is your best friend. This tool scans the entire workbook for hidden data and lets you remove it.

Warning: Be careful with actions that you cannot undo! Make sure you save a copy. Before using the inspector of your choice, go through the following steps:

Go to the File tab to open the Backstage view.
Click on Info.
Click the button that says Check for Issues, and from the dropdown, select Inspect Document.
If you haven't recently saved, it may prompt you to "Save". Just click Yes to ensure the changes are saved and cannot be undone.
Next comes "The Document Inspector." Ensure that both Comments and Annotations are checked. Click Inspect.
After the inspection, the Inspector displays findings. Click Remove All for Comments & Annotations.

This process scrubs every note and all comments—along with hidden metadata—completely out of the workbook. This all-in-one method is ideal when sending a finished template to clients, ensuring security and professionalism.

Final Thoughts

From a quick right-click on a single cell to using the more powerful "Go To Special" or "Inspect Document" features, you have plenty of ways to keep your Excel files tidy and professional. Removing old notes is a simple but essential step in updating templates and preparing reports, ensuring your final version is clean and only contains relevant information.

Working to remove unwanted data or re-format old spreadsheets can really wear on our limited energy devoted to manual and tedious tasks. At Graphed, we focus on reducing these efforts, transforming them into efficient processes. Our platform provides direct access to an easier dashboard, using conversational prompts, ensuring you're using the latest data. This advantage enhances data connectivity and streamlines business operations.