PROBLEM DISPLAYING EXCEL NOTES BETWEEN DESKTOP AND WEB

Shaw Lennox 0 Reputation points
2026-08-26T01:12:22.87+00:00

AA from my EXCEL 365 DESKTOP version I created notes on cells with images to make document thumbnails, when I open the file with the EXCEL WEB version via sharepoint, I no longer have access to the content of these notes

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For business | Windows
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  1. Dora-T 380 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-08-26T02:12:15.7733333+00:00

    Hi Shaw Lennox

    First, I recommend reviewing the AI-generated answer, as it explains that Notes created in the Excel desktop app with images or rich content may not display those images correctly in Excel for the web.

    I also tested this in my own environment and was able to reproduce the same behavior. The image in the Note is displayed correctly in the Excel desktop app, but it does not appear when I open the same workbook in Excel for the web.

    Excel desktop app:

    User's image

    Excel for the web:

    User's image

    From my perspective, this appears to be a limitation of the current Excel for the web experience. If this is affecting your workflow, you may consider submitting feedback via Ideas · Community so the product team can review this experience.   

    Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. As an Independent Advisor, I cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access Microsoft's back-end systems. My role is to provide technical guidance based on the information and resources available to me. For product changes or feature requests, submitting feedback through Microsoft's official feedback channels would be the most appropriate approach. 

    I hope this helps clarify the behavior you're seeing.

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

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  2. AI answer

    2026-08-26T01:12:35.47+00:00

    Excel for the web does not fully preserve note content created in desktop Excel when those notes contain rich formatting or images.

    Supported behavior:

    • Notes can be created, displayed, and edited in Excel for the web.
    • Notes appear as yellow sticky notes in both desktop Excel and Excel for the web.
    • Notes created on the desktop client do not display as rich text in Excel for the web.
    • Editing notes in Excel for the web removes any existing rich text the note contained.

    For the specific scenario of notes used as document thumbnails with images:

    • Images in notes created in desktop Excel are not supported for display in Excel for the web.
    • The workbook should be opened in the Excel desktop app to view that note content correctly.

    If the workbook must be used in the browser, the practical limitation is that note content relying on images or rich formatting will not be available there.

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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