XL97: Error Applying Comment When Worksheets Are Grouped

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel 97, if you run a Visual Basic for Applications macro that attempts to add a comment to a cell in a worksheet, you may receive the following error message:

   Run-time error '1004':
   NoteText method of Range class failed

CAUSE

This problem occurs if the macro uses a line of code similar to the following

   ActiveCell.NoteText Text:="This is a comment."

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides examples of Visual Basic for Applications procedures for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. The Visual Basic procedures in this article are provided 'as is' and Microsoft does not guarantee that they can be used in all situations. While Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular macro, they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality, nor will they help you construct macros to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to consult one of the Microsoft Solution Providers. Solution Providers offer a wide range of fee-based services, including creating custom macros. For more information about Microsoft Solution Providers, call Microsoft Customer Information Service at (800) 426-9400.

There are two methods you can use to prevent this problem from occurring:

Method One

Do not use the NoteText method with the ActiveCell property directly. Instead, use the ActiveCell property to determine what cell to comment, and then apply the comment to that cell using the Range and NoteText methods. The following code example demonstrates one way in which this may be done.

   Sub Test1()

       'Use "Range(ActiveCell.Address)" in place of "ActiveCell".
       Range(ActiveCell.Address).NoteText Text:="This is a comment."

   End Sub

Method Two

If you want to apply the same comment to the active cell in all of the grouped worksheets, you can use For Each and Next to loop through all of the worksheets. The following code example demonstrates one way in which this may be done.

   Sub Test2()

       'For each currently selected worksheet...
       For Each xSheet In ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets

           '...add a comment to the active cell in that sheet.
           xSheet.Range(ActiveCell.Address).NoteText Text:="Hello!"

       'Repeat for all of the grouped worksheets.
       Next xSheet

   End Sub

STATUS

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel 97.

MORE INFORMATION

In earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, if you run a macro that contains the following line of code

   ActiveCell.NoteText Text:="This is a comment."

In Microsoft Excel 97, you receive the error message mentioned in the "Symptoms" section if your macro uses the above line of code to apply a comment to the active cell when multiple worksheets are grouped.

Note that you cannot manually comment a cell by clicking Comment or Note on the Insert menu when multiple worksheets are grouped in any version of Microsoft Excel.