Regarding HSSFComment.getCellComment() we must have the row created; I bet it is unnecessary.
Hi, You can get cell comments using such chunk of code: HSSFWorkbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook(); HSSFSheet sheet = wb.createSheet(); Drawing drawing = sheet.createDrawingPatriarch(); HSSFClientAnchor clientAnchor = new HSSFClientAnchor(0, 0, 0, 0, (short) 0, 0, (short)3, 3); Comment comment = drawing.createCellComment(clientAnchor); RichTextString str = new HSSFRichTextString("Hello, World!"); comment.setString(str); comment.setRow(3); comment.setColumn(4); FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("workbook.xls"); wb.write(out); out.close(); wb = new HSSFWorkbook(new FileInputStream("workbook.xls")); sheet = wb.getSheetAt(0); comment = sheet.getCellComment(3, 4); System.out.println(comment.getString().getString()); Regards, Evgeniy