Add a background picture to a worksheet that is printable and semi-transparent. Episode 1023 will show you how.
This video is the podcast companion to the book, Learn Excel 97-2007 from MrExcel. Download a new two minute video every workday to learn one of the 377 tips from the book!
This video is the podcast companion to the book, Learn Excel 97-2007 from MrExcel. Download a new two minute video every workday to learn one of the 377 tips from the book!
Transcript of the video:
Where is it Wednesday?
It used to be right there.
Hey, hello, hi, I hate to you when doing this one as a where's it Wednesday because it was hard to find in Excel 2003.
I don't think anyone could ever find out.
I have a question today from Nada.
Nada says, |hate when we use the page layout and background utility to apply a background, it automatically gets tiled".
And he says that it is not what I'm wanting.
I just want to put a nice background back there behind a certain range and not have it get tiled.
And you would think that this would be really easy to do.
But if we try and do insert a picture, I cannot find any way to make that picture to be transparent.
And I've right-clicked, I have searched everywhere.
I just can't find it.
And I know that I've done in Excel 2003.
And when I went back to Excel 2003 to figure out, where it was.
It turns out that I had a different trick back in Excel 2003.
I would insert not a picture, but a shape.
So, I'll insert a shape here, and I'll actually what I'm going to do.
I'm going to draw it right on top of the other pictures that way I know it's the right size.
So, we'll insert a shape and make it be exactly the same size as that picture.
Now, watch this!
Here's what we're going to do.
We're going to right-click say Format Shape and I'm going to change the Fill to a Picture or Texture fill.
And I'll insert from file, and I'll choose the exact same picture.
Now, that I've inserted the picture.
I finally have access to the transparency setting.
So, kick that up to about 73 or so.
I also want to get rid of the Line Style to No Line.
So, that way I don't have a border around the picture.
Click Close and right-click and choose cut on the original picture and now put our new picture up here.
And so it's a nice little background.
And we can now go in and enter any numbers that we want to enter.
And we are good to go.
Alright, so there's the very difficult trick for getting a nice picture watermark that's not tile behind your cells.
The advantage of this by the way is that it does print.
Whereas, the background, page layout background.
let's try that real quick to see if it's changed at all.
So, I insert a page layout background, and then if we go into...
Let's put some data here.
Go into Print Preview.
Yeah, the background that you do in page setup, is only for display is not for printing.
So, this is actually a good way to get the picture there even when you print.
Alright! So, thanks for stopping by.
We'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
It used to be right there.
Hey, hello, hi, I hate to you when doing this one as a where's it Wednesday because it was hard to find in Excel 2003.
I don't think anyone could ever find out.
I have a question today from Nada.
Nada says, |hate when we use the page layout and background utility to apply a background, it automatically gets tiled".
And he says that it is not what I'm wanting.
I just want to put a nice background back there behind a certain range and not have it get tiled.
And you would think that this would be really easy to do.
But if we try and do insert a picture, I cannot find any way to make that picture to be transparent.
And I've right-clicked, I have searched everywhere.
I just can't find it.
And I know that I've done in Excel 2003.
And when I went back to Excel 2003 to figure out, where it was.
It turns out that I had a different trick back in Excel 2003.
I would insert not a picture, but a shape.
So, I'll insert a shape here, and I'll actually what I'm going to do.
I'm going to draw it right on top of the other pictures that way I know it's the right size.
So, we'll insert a shape and make it be exactly the same size as that picture.
Now, watch this!
Here's what we're going to do.
We're going to right-click say Format Shape and I'm going to change the Fill to a Picture or Texture fill.
And I'll insert from file, and I'll choose the exact same picture.
Now, that I've inserted the picture.
I finally have access to the transparency setting.
So, kick that up to about 73 or so.
I also want to get rid of the Line Style to No Line.
So, that way I don't have a border around the picture.
Click Close and right-click and choose cut on the original picture and now put our new picture up here.
And so it's a nice little background.
And we can now go in and enter any numbers that we want to enter.
And we are good to go.
Alright, so there's the very difficult trick for getting a nice picture watermark that's not tile behind your cells.
The advantage of this by the way is that it does print.
Whereas, the background, page layout background.
let's try that real quick to see if it's changed at all.
So, I insert a page layout background, and then if we go into...
Let's put some data here.
Go into Print Preview.
Yeah, the background that you do in page setup, is only for display is not for printing.
So, this is actually a good way to get the picture there even when you print.
Alright! So, thanks for stopping by.
We'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
