"Traditional comments" were renamed to Notes in Excel 365. The comments feature in 365 refers to a threaded layout that allow users to have discussion in a particular cell. In this guide, we are going to be looking at "legacy comments" and show you how to insert a picture into a note in Excel.

Download Workbook

Preparation

Add a note if you haven't already done so. To insert a note or legacy comment:

  1. Select the cell where you want to add a note.
  2. Right-click to open the context menu.
  3. Click Insert Comment in older Excel versions,
    or
    Click Insert Note in Excel 365.

If you do not see any notes or comments in the worksheet, check out the options in case they are hidden. You can find the related settings in Excel Options:

File > Options > Advanced > Display > For cells with comments, show

Insert a picture into a note

To insert a picture into a note, you first need to select the note. However, you can't do this in hover mode. You need to configure your note to make it visible by selecting Show All Notes (Show All Comments) command from Review > Notes in the Ribbon.

This option is under the Comments section in older Excel versions.

Once the note is visible, right-click on its border and select the Format Comment option.

How to insert a picture into a comment box in Excel 04

In the Format Comment Dialog, navigate to the Colors and Lines tab and then click Fill Effects on the Color drop-down list.

Navigate to the Picture tab in the Fill Effects window. Use the Select Picture button to select the desired image.

Click the OK buttons in each window to insert your image into the note.

How to insert a picture into a comment box in Excel 07

Remember to click Show All Notes (Show All Comments) button to hide them again.

How to insert a picture into a note in Excel 08