Content inside notes are transparent on excel PC application

Question

Content inside notes are transparent on excel PC application

Bici Alba 10

Hi all,

my team is facing an issue with the notes in excel.

When the file is open from web (on cloud) the notes and their content is visible (pic 1)

User's image

Picture 1

But when the same file is open on excel application present on PC, the content of the notes is not visible (is transparent) (pic 2). In order to see the content you have to go inside the note select all the content and format it.

User's image

Picture 2

This is causing a lot of troubles because the file might have a lot of notes up to 1K and having to go and format one note at a time is very time consuming and no value added. Moreover, usually the team prefer to use excel on the pc (through APP) instead of web version.

Can you please help me how to solve this issue, to see the notes also on the Excel App PC version?

Thank you.

p.s.

I have tried also by changing into darker theme of excel, but nothing changes.

1 answer

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Answer 1

Henry-N 10,155 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Bici Alba,
Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.
I'm sorry for the inconvenience you've encountered. To better assist you, could you please provide more details such as:

Within the company, are you the only one experiencing this issue, or is anyone else affected as well?
What is the current version of Excel you are using? Have you tried updating to the latest version?
Are you encountering this issue with just this one file, or does it occur with other files as well?
With this particular file, did you use it normally before, or did this issue only arise after switching to the desktop app? Regarding your description, I would like to give you some tips that you can consider:
1/ Start Excel with safe mode
2/ Repair Excel
3/ Reinstall Excel
4/ Run the VBA code to format multiple notes On Developer tab > Visual Basic then Insert > New module

Sub FormatComments()      
Dim cmt As Comment        
For Each cmt In ActiveCell.Parent.Comments          
With cmt              
' Change font              
			.Shape.TextFrame.Characters.Font.Name = "Arial"              
			.Shape.TextFrame.Characters.Font.Size = 12              
			.Shape.TextFrame.Characters.Font.Bold = True              
			.Shape.TextFrame.Characters.Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 0) ' Black text          
		End With      
	Next cmt    
End Sub

Once again, I sincerely apologize for the unpleasant experience. I look forward to your information and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me - I’ll be happy to assist you. Wishing you a wonderful day.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Bici Alba 10 Reputation points

2026-02-16T16:27:23.2766667+00:00
Hi Henry,

below my responses

Within the company, are you the only one experiencing this issue, or is anyone else affected as well? -> no I am not the only, the entire team within the company is facing this issue as evidenced on my first comment

What is the current version of Excel you are using? ->

Have you tried updating to the latest version? -> This is the latest version

Are you encountering this issue with just this one file, or does it occur with other files as well? -> it occurs with other files as well

Finally I cannot use the solution you told me due to the fact that is an entire team using this file. Moreover, the code you have inserted is for the comments and not for the notes. The problem we are experiencing is with the "Notes" and not with the "Comments"

Thnx
Bici Alba 10 Reputation points

2026-02-16T16:31:35.1+00:00

Hi Henry,

Below my responses:

Within the company, are you the only one experiencing this issue, or is anyone else affected as well? -> no it's not only me, it's an entire team with more than 50pp

What is the current version of Excel you are using?

Have you tried updating to the latest version? -> This is the latest version

Are you encountering this issue with just this one file, or does it occur with other files as well?-> also with other files

Finally, the Dockerfile code you have shared is related to the comments and not to the "Notes", for which we have the issue. As I mentioned our issue is with the "Notes" and NOT with the Comments.

Thnx
Henry-N 10,155 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-17T15:18:32.82+00:00

Hi @Bici Alba,

Thank you for your update. I want to summary your issue that the first version of this file is created on web version and now you want to use on desktop app and have above issue.

About the excel VBA code, let me clarify somethings:

You could refer to this article : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/excel.range.notetext- Returns or sets the cell note associated with the cell in the upper-left corner of the range. Read/write String. Cell notes have been replaced by range comments. Based on that, we can use comment field for note. Here is an example:

In your situation, I recommend you save that file as a copy to try executing my code. If it works, you can run on the main file and save it so everyone will have the latest file with new format.

I also have test this code on my side and this the result:

Before:
After:

Thank you again for your time and understanding. Looking forward to your response.
Bici Alba 10 Reputation points

2026-02-17T15:28:14.4133333+00:00

Hi Henry,

I would like to thank you for your effort and response, but I personally think this is not the solution. If there is a problem/issue with excel product you can find a lot of workarounds (as the one shared) but this doesn't eliminate the problem.

If I have to write it in real life, what you are proposing is to take a medicine in order to feel better, but this doesn't eliminate the disease/root cause of the problem.

For this reason it is better to escalate the issue to the creators of the product (EXCEL) and fix the problem instead of writing codes and codes for no reason. Why a person with no capability for writing codes should implement VBA for something that the application should/is programmed to do it?

Finally, as a user (with no capabilities for VBA), why I should have to implement VBA when I can use the web version? So at your prospective which is the fastest and easiest way for a user?

I know I am not using the pc version, but this is how Microsoft is creating/developing their products not performing equally on web and on pc.

Sincerely,

A
Henry-N 10,155 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-18T17:34:03.5266667+00:00

Hi @Bici Alba,

Thank you for your detailed feedback I truly appreciate your perspective.

As an end user like you, my goal was to provide you with a workaround that could help your team continue working without being blocked. I completely understand that this does not resolve the underlying issue, and I agree with you that the root cause should be fixed on the product side.

As forum moderators, we do not have access to internal service logs, backend diagnostics, or engineering dashboards due to privacy and security restrictions.

In this case, the behavior you’re experiencing in Excel for desktop appears to require investigation by the Excel backend/product engineering team. Since this involves the Excel client’s rendering of legacy Notes

I highly recommend opening a support ticket in the Admin Center, so the engineering team can review logs, collect diagnostics, and investigate the root cause directly.

The Global Admin should create a service request with Microsoft support to get advanced technical assistance and diagnostics. For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to Get support - Microsoft 365 admin. 

For additional assistance, use this link to find the appropriate contact number: Global Customer Service phone numbers - Microsoft Support  

Thank you again for your time and understanding.

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Content inside notes are transparent on excel PC application

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