HSSFWorkbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook();
HSSFSheet sheet = wb.createSheet("Cell comments in POI HSSF");
// Create the drawing patriarch. This is the top level container for all shapes including cell comments.
HSSFPatriarch patr = sheet.createDrawingPatriarch();
//create a cell in row 3
HSSFCell cell1 = sheet.createRow(3).createCell((short)1);
cell1.setCellValue(new HSSFRichTextString("Hello, World"));
//anchor defines size and position of the comment in worksheet
HSSFComment comment1 = patr.createComment(new HSSFClientAnchor(0, 0, 0, 0, (short)4, 2, (short) 6, 5));
// set text in the comment
comment1.setString(new HSSFRichTextString("We can set comments in POI"));
//set comment author.
//you can see it in the status bar when moving mouse over the commented cell
comment1.setAuthor("Apache Software Foundation");
// The first way to assign comment to a cell is via HSSFCell.setCellComment method
cell1.setCellComment(comment1);
//create another cell in row 6
HSSFCell cell2 = sheet.createRow(6).createCell((short)1);
cell2.setCellValue(36.6);
HSSFComment comment2 = patr.createComment(new HSSFClientAnchor(0, 0, 0, 0, (short)4, 8, (short) 6, 11));
//modify background color of the comment
comment2.setFillColor(204, 236, 255);
HSSFRichTextString string = new HSSFRichTextString("Normal body temperature");
//apply custom font to the text in the comment
HSSFFont font = wb.createFont();
font.setFontName("Arial");
font.setFontHeightInPoints((short)10);
font.setBoldweight(HSSFFont.BOLDWEIGHT_BOLD);
font.setColor(HSSFColor.RED.index);
string.applyFont(font);
comment2.setString(string);
comment2.setVisible(true); //by default comments are hidden. This one is always visible.
comment2.setAuthor("Bill Gates");
/**
* The second way to assign comment to a cell is to implicitly specify its row and column.
* Note, it is possible to set row and column of a non-existing cell.
* It works, the commnet is visible.
*/
comment2.setRow(6);
comment2.setColumn((short)1);
FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("poi_comment.xls");
wb.write(out);
out.close();
