Best way to add references and clarifying notes associated with particular Excel cells

[Anomalocaris]

I've created an Excel spreadsheet where each of the cells is a 'yes,' 'no,' or 'maybe' claim that I want to back up with references, quoted passages, and possibly notes to clarify. Right now I'm managing this by just adding text to the next cell in the row. So each column of claims has a column right next to it that consists of references. The problem with this is that it's hard to edit text inside of an Excel cell and it's an eyesore. Does anyone have a recommendation of how to do this better? I also use Mendeley as a citation manager so if the solution was somehow particularly convenient to use with Mendeley that would be great.

One option I was thinking of was to have a Microsoft Word file somehow linked to the spreadsheet such that if you collect on one of the cells it would bring up the area in the Microsoft Word document that had the associated references, quoted passages, and notes of clarification. Is that possible? Or is there some better option I'm not thinking of?

Right now in the document there are five columns (with one associated reference column for each one) and 40 rows. I have an office 365 subscription.

[MarvinP]

Hi Anomalocaris and welcome to the forum,

I'm thinking you need to create a HyperLink from Excel to a Word bookmark.
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/crea...ord-40035.html
https://www.excelforum.com/excel-gen...-bookmark.html

Then you could create all your notes in word.

[Anomalocaris]

Great, thanks!