I could never figure out why Excel 2003 doesn't offer a paste picture icon or a close all icon. You can get to these obscure menu items, but when you try to drag them to the toolbar, they revert back to just paste or close. I will muse about this in Episode 896 with a possible explanation.
Transcript of the video:
Well, hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, I'm Bill Jelen.
Well we start our second ten years at MrExcel, I hope you'll indulge me here.
I just have something that's been driving me crazy, and I think I finally have figured out all that.
I want to get your feedback on it.
Now, this is an Excel 2003, so for those of you in Excel 2007, sorry that I'm so far behind the times.
You know, typically, if we go to the File menu and open it, there's something called Close.
But if I hold down the Shift key and open the File menu, Close changes to Close All.
Also, on the Edit menu-- lets copy something-- Edit usually offers Paste, Paste Special, Paste as Hyperlink, but if I hold down the Shift key, then I get Paste as Picture, Paste as Picture Link.
And I always want to add those items to my toolbar, but when we go into Tools, Customize, they're just simply not there.
We can look through Edit and there is no Paste Picture Link, and I can never figure that out.
So, finally, I said, "Alright, let's see if I can be clever." Let's see if, while the customized dialog box is displayed, if I hold down the Shift key and go to File, sure enough Close All is there; and it's possible to rearrange icons.
It's also possible, if you hold down the Ctrl key, to copy an icon.
So while I'm holding down the Shift key, I hold down the Ctrl key, and I take Close All, and I drop it on my toolbar.
And to my dismay, it changes back to Close; and the same thing happens if I go to Edit and choose Paste Picture or Paste Picture Link.
So Ctrl+Shift+drag it, just changes to a regular old Paste icon.
It's like the special characteristics of it go away.
And I started to think about that.
Okay, I wonder if that icon, then, is one of the shiftable icons.
What do I mean by shiftable?
Well, I mean normally, in Excel 2003, if I choose a cell and click A to Z, it will sort a setting.
But-- now, watch this, I'm going to see if Laura can zoom in on this icon-- I'm going to hold down the Shift key and click the icon again.
Look-- see that?
Because the Shift key's held down when I click it, it actually reverses to the other icon; and when I let go, sure enough, I've sorted the data.
And since I started to think about that, I wonder if these icons that we added-- so here I'm going to just select some data and I'll copy it and then come to a new spot-- I wonder if that Paste icon that we added really becomes Paste Picture when I hold down the Shift key.
So here, I click Shift, and click Paste, and sure enough it pastes a Picture.
So, in fact, we've actually had Paste Picture there on the toolbar all the time; we just had to know to Shift it.
And, in a similar fashion, if you would have a Close icon, and hold down the Shift key, it would change to Close All.
So just one of those things that have been driving me crazy: Why do we have these cool icons that we can get to in a special manner by holding down Shift, but we can never put them on the toolbar?
Turns out they've pretty much been on the toolbar the whole time.
We just weren't smart enough to click+Shift in order to invoke it.
Now, as I said, for anyone in Excel 2007, this whole concept of an icon doing something different when it's Shifted, has gone away.
So you can't Shift+click A to Z and have it sort descending in Excel 2007.
I don't know why, it was a very cool feature.
They just, I guess, figured it was too obscure and no one could discover it.
So, hey, I want to thank you for stopping by, we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
Well we start our second ten years at MrExcel, I hope you'll indulge me here.
I just have something that's been driving me crazy, and I think I finally have figured out all that.
I want to get your feedback on it.
Now, this is an Excel 2003, so for those of you in Excel 2007, sorry that I'm so far behind the times.
You know, typically, if we go to the File menu and open it, there's something called Close.
But if I hold down the Shift key and open the File menu, Close changes to Close All.
Also, on the Edit menu-- lets copy something-- Edit usually offers Paste, Paste Special, Paste as Hyperlink, but if I hold down the Shift key, then I get Paste as Picture, Paste as Picture Link.
And I always want to add those items to my toolbar, but when we go into Tools, Customize, they're just simply not there.
We can look through Edit and there is no Paste Picture Link, and I can never figure that out.
So, finally, I said, "Alright, let's see if I can be clever." Let's see if, while the customized dialog box is displayed, if I hold down the Shift key and go to File, sure enough Close All is there; and it's possible to rearrange icons.
It's also possible, if you hold down the Ctrl key, to copy an icon.
So while I'm holding down the Shift key, I hold down the Ctrl key, and I take Close All, and I drop it on my toolbar.
And to my dismay, it changes back to Close; and the same thing happens if I go to Edit and choose Paste Picture or Paste Picture Link.
So Ctrl+Shift+drag it, just changes to a regular old Paste icon.
It's like the special characteristics of it go away.
And I started to think about that.
Okay, I wonder if that icon, then, is one of the shiftable icons.
What do I mean by shiftable?
Well, I mean normally, in Excel 2003, if I choose a cell and click A to Z, it will sort a setting.
But-- now, watch this, I'm going to see if Laura can zoom in on this icon-- I'm going to hold down the Shift key and click the icon again.
Look-- see that?
Because the Shift key's held down when I click it, it actually reverses to the other icon; and when I let go, sure enough, I've sorted the data.
And since I started to think about that, I wonder if these icons that we added-- so here I'm going to just select some data and I'll copy it and then come to a new spot-- I wonder if that Paste icon that we added really becomes Paste Picture when I hold down the Shift key.
So here, I click Shift, and click Paste, and sure enough it pastes a Picture.
So, in fact, we've actually had Paste Picture there on the toolbar all the time; we just had to know to Shift it.
And, in a similar fashion, if you would have a Close icon, and hold down the Shift key, it would change to Close All.
So just one of those things that have been driving me crazy: Why do we have these cool icons that we can get to in a special manner by holding down Shift, but we can never put them on the toolbar?
Turns out they've pretty much been on the toolbar the whole time.
We just weren't smart enough to click+Shift in order to invoke it.
Now, as I said, for anyone in Excel 2007, this whole concept of an icon doing something different when it's Shifted, has gone away.
So you can't Shift+click A to Z and have it sort descending in Excel 2007.
I don't know why, it was a very cool feature.
They just, I guess, figured it was too obscure and no one could discover it.
So, hey, I want to thank you for stopping by, we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
