Cell Comments

abap2xlsx supports Excel-style cell comments (the yellow sticky-note annotations visible when you hover over a cell). Comments are managed through zcl_excel_comment (one annotation) and zcl_excel_comments (the per-worksheet collection accessible via zcl_excel_worksheet->comments).

Adding a Comment

DATA lo_comment TYPE REF TO zcl_excel_comment.

lo_comment = NEW zcl_excel_comment( ).

" Position the comment on cell C5
lo_comment->cell_column = 'C'.
lo_comment->cell_row    = 5.

" Author and text
lo_comment->author      = 'Karthik'.

" Use ms_box structure to set text (post-PR #1316)
lo_comment->ms_box-text = 'Review this value — check against PO line 3.'.

" Optional: size and position of the comment box (in EMU)
lo_comment->ms_box-margin_left   = 1200000.
lo_comment->ms_box-margin_top    = 800000.
lo_comment->ms_box-width         = 2400000.
lo_comment->ms_box-height        = 1200000.

lo_worksheet->comments->add( lo_comment ).

The ms_box Structure

PR #1316 (June 2025) wrapped all box-geometry and text parameters into the ms_box component structure. The relevant fields are:

Field	Type	Description
ms_box-text	string	Comment text content
ms_box-margin_left	i	Left edge offset from the anchor cell, in EMU
ms_box-margin_top	i	Top edge offset from the anchor cell, in EMU
ms_box-width	i	Comment box width in EMU
ms_box-height	i	Comment box height in EMU

EMU conversion

1 cm = 360 000 EMU. 1 inch = 914 400 EMU. A typical comment box of ~5 cm × 2.5 cm is approximately width = 1 800 000, height = 900 000.

The author attribute remains a direct public attribute on the object (not inside ms_box).

Cell Position

cell_column accepts an alphabetic column identifier ('A'–'XFD'). cell_row accepts an integer row number starting from 1. Both are public attributes set directly on the zcl_excel_comment instance.

Reading Comments Back

The reader (zcl_excel_reader_2007) restores comment text and position when it parses an xlsx file that contains a comments1.xml part. After reading, iterate the comments collection:

DATA lo_iterator TYPE REF TO zcl_excel_collection_iterator.
DATA lo_obj      TYPE REF TO object.
DATA lo_cmt      TYPE REF TO zcl_excel_comment.

lo_iterator = lo_worksheet->comments->get_iterator( ).
WHILE lo_iterator->has_next( ) = abap_true.
  lo_obj = lo_iterator->get_next( ).
  lo_cmt ?= lo_obj.
  WRITE: / lo_cmt->cell_column, lo_cmt->cell_row, lo_cmt->ms_box-text.
ENDWHILE.

Worksheet Copy and Comments

When you copy a worksheet with zcl_excel->copy_worksheet( ), the comments collection reference is correctly passed to the new sheet (fixed in the worksheet copy constructor — part of the v6 bug-fix stream). No extra steps are needed.

Limitations

• abap2xlsx writes legacy VML-based comments (xl/drawings/vmlDrawing1.vml), which is the format used by Excel 97–2019 .xlsx files. These render correctly in all desktop versions of Excel and LibreOffice Calc.
• Threaded / modern comments (the Microsoft 365 "@mention" comment style stored in xl/threadedComments/) are not supported.
• Rich-text formatting inside comment text (bold author name etc.) is not exposed — the text is written as plain text.
• Comment box fill colour and border style cannot be customised through the public API.