How to Change Workbook Appearance in Microsoft Excel 2010

Adding Images to Worksheets

Establishing a strong corporate identity helps customers remember your organization as well as the products and services you offer. Setting aside the obvious need for sound management, two important physical attributes of a strong retail business are a well-conceived shop space and an eye-catching, easy-to-remember logo. After you or your graphic artist has created a logo, you should add the logo to all your documents, especially any that might be seen by your customers. Not only does the logo mark the documents as coming from your company but it also serves as an advertisement, encouraging anyone who sees your worksheets to call or visit your company.

One way to add a picture to a worksheet is to display the Insert tab, and then in the Illustrations group, click Picture. Clicking Picture displays the Insert Picture dialog box, from which you can locate the picture you want to add from your hard disk. When you insert a picture, the Picture Tools Format contextual tab appears on the ribbon. You can use the tools on the Format contextual tab to change the picture’s contrast, brightness, and other attributes. With the controls in the Picture Styles group, you can place a border around the picture, change the picture’s shape, or change a picture’s effects (such as shadow, reflection, or three-dimensional effects). Other tools, found in the Arrange and Size groups, enable you to rotate, reposition, and resize the picture.

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You can place an image anywhere on a worksheet.

You can also resize a picture by clicking it and then dragging one of the handles that appears on the graphic. If you accidentally resize a graphic by dragging a handle, just click the Undo button to remove your change.

Excel 2010 includes a new built-in capability that you can use to remove the background of an image you insert into a workbook. To do so, click the image and then, on the Format contextual tab of the ribbon, in the Adjust group, click Remove Background. When you do, Excel attempts to identify the foreground and background of the image.

You can display only the image subject by removing the image background.

You can drag the handles on the inner square of the background removal tool to change how the tool analyzes the image. When you have adjusted the outline to identify the elements of the image you want to keep, click the Keep Changes button on the Background Removal contextual tab of the ribbon to complete the operation.

If you want to generate a repeating image in the background of a worksheet to form a tiled pattern behind your worksheet’s data, you can display the Page Layout tab, and then in the Page Setup group, click Background. In the Sheet Background dialog box, click the image that you want to serve as the background pattern for your worksheet, and click OK.

To achieve a watermark-type effect with words displayed behind the worksheet data, save the watermark information as an image, and then use the image as the sheet background; you could also insert the image in the header or footer, and then resize or scale it to position the watermark information where you want it.

In this exercise, you’ll add an image to an existing worksheet, change its location on the worksheet, reduce the size of the image, and then set another image as a repeating background for the worksheet.

1. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Picture.

   The Insert Picture dialog box opens.

2. Navigate to the Chapter11 practice file folder, and then double-click the Phone image file.

   The image appears on your worksheet.

3. On the Format contextual tab, in the Adjust group, click Remove Background.

   Excel attempts to separate the image’s foreground from its background.

4. Drag the handles at the upper-left and bottom-right corners of the outline until the entire phone, including the cord, is within the frame.

   

   You resize an image on a worksheet by using the same techniques you do in a document.

5. On the Background Removal tab, click Keep Changes.

   Excel removes the highlighted image elements.

6. Move the image to the upper-left corner of the worksheet, click and hold the handle at the lower-right corner of the image, and drag it up and to the left until the image no longer obscures the Call Volume label.

   

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   Images on worksheets are independent of worksheet cells.

7. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Background.

   The Sheet Background dialog box opens.

8. Navigate to the Chapter11 practice file folder, and then double-click the Texture image file.

   Excel repeats the image to form a background pattern.

   

   Click to view larger image

   You can use an image file to create a worksheet background.

9. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Delete Background.

   Excel removes the background image.