deleting all comments in a spreadsheet

Hi Maggie,

Advance planning is the key here. The easiest way to have a comment-free (and data free) copy of the document is to save one as a template before you add data or comments.

At this point you will be able to apply that method to the 2017 (and beyond) copies of this document, but for this year-end, you may be stuck with manual deletion.

Besides the comment, what is the content of these cells? Is that content also to be deleted in preparation for the next year? Selecting a cell (one click) and pressing delete will delete the contents of the cell (text, numbers or other entered data, or formula) and the comment. Copying an empty cell, then pasting it into a group of cells should also remove the comments (and content) of those cells, but will also replace any format settings with those of the copied cell now being pasted. With 'over 100 (but presumably fewer than 200) comments, manual deletion (click on a cell or a group of cells, press delete) may be a useable solution.

IF there is a way to detect the presence of comments on a cell using AppleScript, it should also be possible to remove those comments using AppleScript, but that's a question for one of the scripters particpating here.

Not much help, I'm afraid, but you may find something worth checking out here. If so, please test on a COPY of your file.

Regards,

Barry

Barry wrote:

IF there is a way to detect the presence of comments on a cell using AppleScript, it should also be possible to remove those comments using AppleScript, but that's a question for one of the scripters particpating here.

Hi Barry,

If there is a way to have AppleScript detect and delete comments associated with a cell, I can't find it.

SG

Hello,

You can use an AppleScript (GUI Scripting), this need to add and check the "Script Editor" application in Accessibility section in the Security & Privacy system preference pane.

This script has been tested on El Capitan (Numbers Version 3.6.1)

Open the "Script Editor" application.

Copy/paste this script in the window of the "Script Editor" application.

set i to 0
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Numbers"
        set frontmost to true
        keystroke "k" using {command down, option down}
        set thisBtn to button 1 of pop over 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1
        repeat
            try
                perform action "AXPress" of thisBtn
                keystroke "k" using {command down, option down}
                set i to 0
            on error
                set i to i + 1
                if i = 3 then exit repeat -- 3 errors in a row, so no more comment
            end try
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

Run the script from the "Script Editor" application.

This script delete 100 comments (11 seconds on my machine).

This works for all table in all sheet of the front document automatically.

You must wait until the script finish before using your keyboard, trackpad and the mouse

Great solution! I see that it uses the keyboard shortcut for 'Show the next comment' and repeats that (followed by clicking 'Delete' in the popup) until no more comments can be found:

SG