Excel 'Notes' functionality (e.g. 'Add Note', 'Edit Note') has gone away from the right-click-on-a-cell operation.

Dear Monty Hutsell，

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

We understand that the comment function does not appear when you right-click in your Excel.

According to your description, we tested it on different devices and found that the comment function can be displayed correctly. We are worried that this problem is related to your program activation and function detection information.

We need to confirm with you:

You use Microsoft 365Office programs, so are your components fully activated successfully?

In Word, you can click the file in the upper left corner, click the account below, and check the product information on the right to see if the specific products and activation status displayed are correct.

Usually, when the Excel program is activated and the functions are correctly detected, you can right-click to display all function information. In order to check whether the Excel program and settings in the system are running correctly, you can help us try the following operations first:

Cancel add-in

Click File in the upper left corner of the document - Options - Add-in - Manage and change it to COM add-in, then select "Go", uncheck all add-ins, click OK, restart the document and see the effect.

Registry reset office

(Before resetting, please make sure that all your Office files have been backed up and saved. If you use OneNote and Outlook, you need to make sure that your notes and emails are backed up to avoid file loss. At the same time, resetting will put your Office program in its initial form. The personalized settings you set need to be saved first)

After resetting, you need to log in to Office again with your Microsoft account.

Press Windows + R, enter: regedit in the open run box, press Enter,

Locate the following key value and rename the Office folder (right-click it and select Rename, for example, rename Office to Officeold)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office 

Then reopen the file to try the effect.

Disclaimer: Generally, modifying registry subkeys or work group is intended for advanced users, administrators, and IT Professionals. It can help fix some problems, however, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For further protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click HERE to view the article. 

Please understand that our initial response may not always resolve your issue immediately. However, we will also respond based on your subsequent help and more detailed information so that we can find a solution together.

Best regards

Zenobia.Z | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Zenobia,

I tried the options suggested and completed the registry editing process. It asked me to sign in and once I opened the document, I still do not see the 'Edit Notes' option in the drop down when right click or from drop down when I click 'notes' in 'Review tab'.

Any other ideas or suggestions to get this fixed?

Thanks,

Prasad