Add a Pop-Up Picture to a Cell in Excel
March 15, 2005
A few shows ago while showing how to track collectibles in Excel, I had shown a worksheet where some of the cells had a pop-up picture. In today's show, I will teach you how to add pop-up pictures to your spreadsheet.
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To do the pop-up pictures, you need to use Cell Comments. These were called Cell Notes in Excel 2000 and earlier. A cell comment is the pop-up box that shows up when you hover over a cell with a red triangle. Microsoft envisioned that someone could explain a data entry on a worksheet with a cell comment. In the image below, someone explains why they used a particular number in their forecast.
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To add a comment to any cell, select Insert - Comment from the menu. Type the text for your comment.
By default, a comment is yellow. If you right click the cell and choose Show Comment, you can easily change the format of a comment. Ctrl+Click the comment, then right click and choose Format Comment. You can choose a different fill color for the comment.
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I have seen some great spreadsheets where people color-coded comments and had them always be shown. This provides a running set of directions for the people filling out your spreadsheet.
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Here is the trick to making a pop-up picture. First, create a completely blank comment. Use Insert - Comment and then backspace to get rid of the name that is there.
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Next, right-click the cell and choose Show Comment. Ctrl+Click the comment. Right-click the comment and choose Format Comment. On the Colors and Lines tab, go to the color dropdown and choose Fill Effects from the bottom of the dialog box.
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In the Fill Effects dialog, choose the Picture tab. Select Insert Picture and browse for your picture.
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Choose OK twice to close the dialog boxes. Grab a fill handle to resize the comment.
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Bonus: it is possible to change the shape of the comment. With the comment selected, use the Draw dropdown on the left side of the Drawing Toolbar. Select Draw - Change AutoShape - and select any shape.
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Finally, right-click the original cell and choose Hide Comment. The cell will have a red triangle. Hover the mousepointer over this cell and the picture will appear.
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Note
You might experience problems when trying to sort cells with picture comments.