Using clip-art in Excel

[Guest]

I'm trying to find a way to superimpose a washed-out, semi-tranparent
clip-art object on top of a worksheet. Is that possible and if so, can
someone share the process?

Thanks!

 

[Dodo]

I'm trying to find a way to superimpose a washed-out, semi-tranparent
clip-art object on top of a worksheet. Is that possible and if so, can
someone share the process?

Thanks!

Insert/Picture/File?

 

[Dodo]

(The above suggestion will only paste an OPAQUE picture onto the sheet
- you can't replicate the Word 'Send Behind Text' feature - and I know,
it annoys me too, especially as the Format -- Sheet -- Background
doesn't quite do the same thing).

Errr . . .

What kind of picture are you talking about?

"washed-out, semi-transparent"?

Have you got a sample somewhere?

 

[Guest]

What he means is that he wants to take a normal picture, paste it into
Excell, and then make it become transparent so that the text can be seen
through it. Maybe it would be possible to use a different image program to
make it look transparent, but then is there a way to get the image to show
behind the text? In other words, if the image where Slimer, the words would
go through Slimer, and you'd see them in Slimer. You know, the image
shouldn't cover the text.

--
Have a nice day!

~Paul
Express Scripts,
Charting the future of pharmacy

~~~~~~
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|c--OD
| _)
| |
|-. |
/ `-# /A
/ /_|..`#.J/
||LJ `m''
ptaylor

 

[Dodo]

What he means

I like to read it in his own words! ;-)))

is that he wants to take a normal picture, paste it into
Excell, and then make it become transparent so that the text can be
seen through it. Maybe it would be possible to use a different image
program to make it look transparent, but then is there a way to get
the image to show behind the text? In other words, if the image where
Slimer, the words would go through Slimer, and you'd see them in
Slimer. You know, the image shouldn't cover the text.

So what was wrong with this?

Insert/Picture/File?

If you use e.g. the png format with transparency it would exctly do what
was originally requested, isn't it?

 

[Guest]

I like to read it in his own words! ;-)))

LOL. Okay, I had that coming. I suppose I should have explained. Believe it
or not, for any of you who may have seen many of my earlier threads, Dave is
the colleague I'm always talking about. I've been working on this very
project with him, so I knew exactly what he meant. I guess I should have said
that. LOL. He asked me the same question, and I've been pondering it myself.

So what was wrong with this?

Insert/Picture/File?

If you use e.g. the png format with transparency it would exctly do what
was originally requested, isn't it?

I'll let him know of your suggestion and tell him to check it out here. One
of us will get back to you all to let you know if this worked. Thanks!

--
Have a nice day!

~Paul
Express Scripts,
Charting the future of pharmacy

~~~~~~
| |
|c--OD
| _)
| |
|-. |
/ `-# /A
/ /_|..`#.J/
||LJ `m''
ptaylor

 

[Guest]

Okay, I was testing out your suggestions and have some updates. I tried what
you said. I was able to make the background transparent, but this does not
solve the problem of the picture itself. As I said before, using Slimer as an
example, we'd want a picture of Slimer in there, but the text should be over
him, not vice versa. I guess we need to effect the opacity of the image. Can
that be done in Excell, or must that be done in an image editor. If it has to
be done in an image editor, will it translate into Excell so that the text
will show OVER the image.

To make a long story short (too late, I know. LOL. I can tend to go on and
on), we basically want to image to show behind any text, but in front of the
cell itself whether or not we change the color of the cell. In other words,
if the cell only has "23" in it, just the 23 should show in front of the
image, not that whole cell so that the image has a big white (or whatever
color we may have colored that cell) box on it.

--
Have a nice day!

~Paul
Express Scripts,
Charting the future of pharmacy

~~~~~~
| |
|c--OD
| _)
| |
|-. |
/ `-# /A
/ /_|..`#.J/
||LJ `m''
ptaylor

 

[Dodo]

Okay, I was testing out your suggestions and have some updates. I
tried what you said. I was able to make the background transparent,
but this does not solve the problem of the picture itself. As I said
before, using Slimer as an example, we'd want a picture of Slimer in
there, but the text should be over him, not vice versa. I guess we
need to effect the opacity of the image. Can that be done in Excell,
or must that be done in an image editor. If it has to be done in an
image editor, will it translate into Excell so that the text will show
OVER the image.

To make a long story short (too late, I know. LOL. I can tend to go on
and on), we basically want to image to show behind any text, but in
front of the cell itself whether or not we change the color of the
cell. In other words, if the cell only has "23" in it, just the 23
should show in front of the image, not that whole cell so that the
image has a big white (or whatever color we may have colored that
cell) box on it.

Okay, the picture is getting clearer all the time. ;-)))

Do you want to put much data over Slimer?

If not (or even so) you could consider putting a text label on the sheet
and link that to the cell with the number.

Use the tool bar (not the text frame in drawing tools) to place the label,
set the LinkedCell, set the back style to transparent and special effect to
0 and the text to any colour that gives sufficient contrast.
Put Slimer in the back and the label to the front.

That should do it!

 

[Guest]

Awesome. That works. Thanks. The only problem is that our spreadsheet
contains a lot of data. Is there any way to get one text box to hold several
cells? If not, this solution would be slightly too tedious for what we want
to do for this project. There would be a lot of linked text boxes for us to
make. Thanks again! This will definitely help for future reference, whether
or not we are able to use it this time.

--
Have a nice day!

~Paul
Express Scripts,
Charting the future of pharmacy

~~~~~~
| |
|c--OD
| _)
| |
|-. |
/ `-# /A
/ /_|..`#.J/
||LJ `m''
ptaylor

 

[Dodo]

Awesome. That works. Thanks. The only problem is that our spreadsheet
contains a lot of data. Is there any way to get one text box to hold
several cells? If not, this solution would be slightly too tedious for
what we want to do for this project. There would be a lot of linked
text boxes for us to make. Thanks again! This will definitely help for
future reference, whether or not we are able to use it this time.

I just found out it also works with AutoShapes (? if that's what they're
called in English).
You have to enter the link in the formula bar for these.

Anyhow, whilst fooling around I discovered that, if you select the text box
you too can edit the link in the formula bar.
If I make it =A1:C1 I see the contents of these cells in the box!

It changes, however, to a picture and the appearance changes completely.I
have not yet found a way to make it look nice.
Also, it seems you can only enter consecutive ranges.