creating cell comments using HSSFClientAnchor in a

Question

Could someone please explain to me how to properly use the Anchors when creating cell comments? Mine were working, but the spread sheet changed and I am having issues getting my cell comments to appear. This is the code I was using that worked:

 Comment c = drawing.createCellComment (new HSSFClientAnchor(0, 0, 0, 0, (short)4, 2, (short)6, 5));

That was found mostly by experimenting around. Looking at the api for it doesn't exactly make it any clearer.

Based on the quick start guide I have also tried the following with no luck:

ClientAnchor anchor = chf.createClientAnchor();
Comment c = drawing.createCellComment(anchor);
c.setString(chf.createRichTextString(message)); 

Answer 1

A bit late, but this will probably work (it works for me, while the Apache POI example from the quick start also didn't work for me):

    public void setComment(String text, Cell cell) {
    final Map<Sheet, HSSFPatriarch> drawingPatriarches = new HashMap<Sheet, HSSFPatriarch>();

    CreationHelper createHelper = cell.getSheet().getWorkbook().getCreationHelper();
    HSSFSheet sheet = (HSSFSheet) cell.getSheet();
    HSSFPatriarch drawingPatriarch = drawingPatriarches.get(sheet);
    if (drawingPatriarch == null) {
        drawingPatriarch = sheet.createDrawingPatriarch();
        drawingPatriarches.put(sheet, drawingPatriarch);
    }

    Comment comment = drawingPatriarch.createComment(new HSSFClientAnchor(0, 0, 0, 0, (short) 4, 2, (short) 6, 5));
    comment.setString(createHelper.createRichTextString(text));
    cell.setCellComment(comment);
}

Erik Pragt

Answer 2

The following code works for me for Office 2007 (xlsx) format files. Figured this out from POI guide http://poi.apache.org/spreadsheet/quick-guide.html#CellComments and How to set comments for 3 cells using apache poi

protected void setCellComment(Cell cell, String message) {
    Drawing drawing = cell.getSheet().createDrawingPatriarch();
    CreationHelper factory = cell.getSheet().getWorkbook()
            .getCreationHelper();
    // When the comment box is visible, have it show in a 1x3 space
    ClientAnchor anchor = factory.createClientAnchor();
    anchor.setCol1(cell.getColumnIndex());
    anchor.setCol2(cell.getColumnIndex() + 1);
    anchor.setRow1(cell.getRowIndex());
    anchor.setRow2(cell.getRowIndex() + 1);
    anchor.setDx1(100);
    anchor.setDx2(100);
    anchor.setDy1(100);
    anchor.setDy2(100);

    // Create the comment and set the text+author
    Comment comment = drawing.createCellComment(anchor);
    RichTextString str = factory.createRichTextString(message);
    comment.setString(str);
    comment.setAuthor("Apache POI");
    // Assign the comment to the cell
    cell.setCellComment(comment);
}