Well, you mentioned macros...
Seems there might be, but it uses methods most of us probably don't brush up against very often
Check out the minitab help. Close to the bottom of the navigation tree there is a section for minitab automation
The sample code for setting a column commend has been pasted in below.
I don'y know how to do any of this, but it looks theoretically possible
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Create a Minitab Application object and add a Column object to the Columns collection of the active worksheet. Then define and populate the array "arrSales" with the column information, retrieve the Column object (MtbColumn), name it "Sales," and place the information in arrSales into the "Sales" column. Finally, set the Comment property of the new column.
Dim MtbApp As Mtb.Application
Dim MtbColumns As Mtb.Columns
Dim MtbColumn As Mtb.Column
Dim arrSales(1 To 8) As Double
arrSales(1) = 94
arrSales(2) = 99
arrSales(4) = 92
arrSales(5) = 106
arrSales(6) = 116
arrSales(7) = 113
arrSales(8) = 108
Set MtbApp = New Mtb.Application
Set MtbColumns = MtbApp.ActiveProject.ActiveWorksheet.Columns
Set MtbColumn = MtbColumns.Add(, , 1)
MtbColumn.Name = "Sales"
MtbColumn.SetData arrSales, 1, 8
MtbColumn.Comment = "Sales data for 1999"