Picture behind cell contents

[Robert Morley]

Is it possible in Excel XP to add a picture that'll appear behind the cell
contents? If so, how do I do it? I tried just the regular
Insert...Picture, but the picture always seems to appear above the cell
contents, even if I use the Send To Back option. I also looked at inserting
the file as a pattern in a cell (sorta like you'd do in PowerPoint), but
Excel doesn't seem to allow you to do that that I could find. Am I just
missing something, or is this just not possible in Excel?

(Note, in case there's any confusion, I don't want a transparent portion to
the image, I know how to do that; I want text to appear OVER the image.)



Thanks,
Rob

 

[Guest]

From Tom Ogilvy (around 1998):

Add background patterns to an entire sheet


1 Click the sheet to which you want to add a background pattern.
2 On the Format menu, point to Sheet, and then click Background.
3 Select the graphics file to use for the background pattern.


The selected graphic is repeated to fill the sheet. You can apply solid
color shading to cells that contain data.


Note If the Background command is not available, make sure you have only
one sheet selected.

 

[Robert Morley]

Not quite what we're looking for, but if that's the best we can do, I think
it'll work. Thanks!


Rob

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Robert,

Note also that the background picture won't zoom with the worksheet. It's rendered actual
size (pixel for pixel) on the screen no matter the zoom setting. It won't print.

 

[Robert Morley]

Thanks for the tip. I can always resize the image if necessary. I'll give
it a try at work tomorrow and see how it goes. We may just end up leaving
that area empty of any text, but if we don't have to, so much the better.


Thanks again,
Rob

 

[Robert Morley]

Leave it to the less-advanced computer user to figure out a way the
more-advanced computer user didn't. Not knowing exactly what was desired
probably didn't help any, either. I sent my boss an e-mail outlining the
problem last night before I posted the question. She responded this morning
telling me she'd simply copied the graphic I'd provided her with into
PowerPoint, added the text she wanted, and copied it back to Excel.

It doesn't actually address the issue of putting cell text in front of an
image, but if it does what she needed it to, that's all that matters.

Thanks for the help everyone!



Rob