Manage Comments and Notes with C++

Introduction

Comments are used to add additional information to cells. Aspose.Cells provides two methods for adding comments to cells. The first is to create comments in a designer file manually. These comments are then imported using Aspose.Cells. The second is to add comments using the Aspose.Cells API at runtime. This topic discusses adding comments to cells using the Aspose.Cells API. Comment formatting will also be explained.

Adding a Comment

Add a comment to a cell by calling the Comments collection’s Add method (encapsulated in the Worksheet object). The new Comment object can be accessed from the Comments collection by passing the comment index. After accessing the Comment object, customize the comment note by using the Comment object’s GetNote() method.

#include <iostream>
#include "Aspose.Cells.h"
using namespace Aspose::Cells;

int main()
{
    Aspose::Cells::Startup();

    // Source directory path
    U16String srcDir(u"..\\Data\\01_SourceDirectory\\");

    // Output directory path
    U16String outDir(u"..\\Data\\02_OutputDirectory\\");

    // Create a new workbook
    Workbook workbook;

    // Add a new worksheet to the workbook
    int32_t sheetIndex = workbook.GetWorksheets().Add();

    // Get the reference of the newly added worksheet
    Worksheet worksheet = workbook.GetWorksheets().Get(sheetIndex);

    // Add a comment to cell "F5"
    int32_t commentIndex = worksheet.GetComments().Add(u"F5");

    // Access the newly added comment
    Comment comment = worksheet.GetComments().Get(commentIndex);

    // Set the comment note
    comment.SetNote(u"Hello Aspose!");

    // Save the Excel file
    U16String outputPath = outDir + u"book1.out.xls";
    workbook.Save(outputPath);

    std::cout << "Excel file saved successfully!" << std::endl;

    Aspose::Cells::Cleanup();
}

Comment Formatting

It is also possible to format a comment’s appearance by configuring its height, width, and font settings.

#include <iostream>
#include "Aspose.Cells.h"
using namespace Aspose::Cells;

int main()
{
    Aspose::Cells::Startup();

    // Source directory path
    U16String srcDir(u"..\\Data\\01_SourceDirectory\\");

    // Output directory path
    U16String outDir(u"..\\Data\\02_OutputDirectory\\");

    // Create workbook
    Workbook workbook;

    // Adding a new worksheet to the Workbook object
    int32_t sheetIndex = workbook.GetWorksheets().Add();

    // Obtaining the reference of the newly added worksheet by passing its sheet index
    Worksheet worksheet = workbook.GetWorksheets().Get(sheetIndex);

    // Adding a comment to "F5" cell
    int32_t commentIndex = worksheet.GetComments().Add(u"F5");

    // Accessing the newly added comment
    Comment comment = worksheet.GetComments().Get(commentIndex);

    // Setting the comment note
    comment.SetNote(u"Hello Aspose!");

    // Setting the font size of a comment to 14
    comment.GetFont().SetSize(14);

    // Setting the font of a comment to bold
    comment.GetFont().SetIsBold(true);

    // Setting the height of the comment to 10 cm
    comment.SetHeightCM(10);

    // Setting the width of the comment to 2 cm
    comment.SetWidthCM(2);

    // Saving the Excel file
    workbook.Save(outDir + u"book1.out.xls");

    std::cout << "Excel file saved successfully!" << std::endl;

    Aspose::Cells::Cleanup();
}

Add an Image to a Comment

With Microsoft Excel 2007, it is also possible to have an image as the background of a cell comment. In Excel 2007 this is accomplished by performing the following steps (these steps assume that you have already added a cell comment).

Right‑click the cell that contains the comment.
Select Show/Hide Comments, and clear any text from the comment.
Click on the border of the comment to select it.
Select Format, then Comment.
On the Colors and Lines tab, expand the Color list.
Click Fill Effects.
On the Picture tab, click Select Picture.
Locate and select the picture.
Click OK until all dialogs have closed.

Aspose.Cells also provides this feature. Below is a code sample that creates an XLSX file from scratch, adding a comment to cell A1 with a picture set as its background.

#include <Aspose.Cells.h>
#include <fstream>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>

using namespace Aspose::Cells;

int main()
{
    Aspose::Cells::Startup();

    U16String srcDir(u"../Data/01_SourceDirectory/");
    U16String outDir(u"../Data/02_OutputDirectory/");

    Workbook workbook;
    WorksheetCollection worksheets = workbook.GetWorksheets();
    Worksheet sheet = worksheets.Get(0);
    CommentCollection comments = sheet.GetComments();

    int32_t commentIndex = comments.Add(0, 0);
    Comment comment = comments.Get(commentIndex);
    comment.SetNote(u"First note.");

    Font commentFont = comment.GetFont();
    commentFont.SetName(u"Times New Roman");

    U16String imagePath = srcDir + u"logo.jpg";
    std::vector<uint8_t> imageData;
    std::ifstream file(imagePath.ToUtf8(), std::ios::binary | std::ios::ate);
    if (file)
    {
        std::streamsize size = file.tellg();
        file.seekg(0, std::ios::beg);
        imageData.resize(size);
        file.read(reinterpret_cast<char*>(imageData.data()), size);
    }
    Vector<uint8_t> data(imageData.data(), static_cast<int32_t>(imageData.size()));

    CommentShape shape = comment.GetCommentShape();
    shape.GetFill().SetImageData(data);

    U16String outputPath = outDir + u"book1.out.xlsx";
    workbook.Save(outputPath, SaveFormat::Xlsx);

    std::cout << "Workbook with image comment created successfully." << std::endl;

    Aspose::Cells::Cleanup();
    return 0;
}

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