I use right click "insert"/"comment". Usually when I put my cursor on the small red arrowhead, which denotes "comment", in the top right corner of the cell, the comment becomes visible beside the relevant cell. However on cells which have had comments inserted at some time previously, some become visible as before, but others show nothing except a thin black line. If I then click on insert/edit comment, I am taken to a compressed image. If I use the double arrow head & open up the image, I then see the comment. If I click outside the box & go back to the original cell which held the comment, I can then see it as normal i.e. with the comment displayed to the right of the cell.
Example- in Excel 2003 I have just put my cursor over the small red arrowhead (which denotes `comment`) on a cell in row 619. I am shown a black line only. I clicked on `insert/EDIT comment` & was taken to line 828 where there was what looked like a compressed `image`. I used the double arrowhead to open it up & there was the comment. I clicked outside the comment & it disappeared. I went BACK to ROW 619 & could now view the comment `normally`.
This may explain it better (see below). If I draw a `human body` & label the `parts` I put the label next to the part, but if there is not room to write a label next to the part, I write the label some distance away & put a line & arrow to indicate to which `part` the label refers. This is what happens in Excel. For `body part` read `contents of cell` & for `label` read `comment` & you might see what I mean. The comment ends up hundreds of rows from the cell, but connected by a black line (& a tiny arrow pointing to the cell) hundreds of rows above'
I asked someone I know who uses Excel, but he does not use the `comment` facility & he thought the problem could be caused by the fact that I was inserting rows to add new entries to the `database`. It may actually not have anything to do with inserting rows. I really want to find some way to overcome this, as it is affecting work done over twenty years & is crucial. Any further ideas on this would be welcome. Ruth