Semi-transparent cell shading

[valdus]

I have an image as sheet background. This image makes it hard to see the text in the cells.

I don't want to use any solid fill color in my cells, since this will cover the background so that it cannot be seen. And I don't want to make the whole background lighter so that it becomes easier to see the contents in the cells.

What I want to do is to have a semi-transparent fill in the cells that contains important information, e.g. fill the cells with white color with a transparency of 50%.

Is this possible? How do I do it? Any other suggestions on solutions to this?

 

[Taul]

Hi,

I'm not sure which version of excell you are using but for version 2003, the option is to use "Freeform" or Autoshape", in the drawing toolbar go to
the rectangle and draw the rectangle in the cell you want, then right click on the shape and choose "Format Autoshape", there you can choose the % transparency.

The "down side" is you will nee to draw each rectangle in the cell(s).

There my be a way of coding it, but I will leave that to the experts !!!

Paul H

 

[shajueasow]

Welcome to the board.
Have you tried Format>Cells>Patterns>Pattern and giving the required pattern from the group.

 

[valdus]

I'm not sure which version of excell you are using but for version 2003

I am running Excel 2003

the option is to use "Freeform" or Autoshape", in the drawing toolbar go to the rectangle and draw the rectangle in the cell you want, then right click on the shape and choose "Format Autoshape", there you can choose the % transparency. The "down side" is you will nee to draw each rectangle in the cell(s).

Well the thought crossed my mind too... It would be feasible since this is a one-time thing I'm doing and I don't need to draw so many Autoshapes to make this.
BUT: Then I get a new problem, the autoshapes will also cover the text - so there will not only be a semi-transparant shape covering the background, but also over the cell data. So this does not solve my problem unless there is a way to move the shape behind the text. I know there is such a function for Autoshapes in MS Word, but I can't find the same in Excel.

Anyone who knows how to place an autoshape in Excel behind the cell data?

 

[valdus]

Have you tried Format>Cells>Patterns>Pattern and giving the required pattern from the group.

Yes, I have tried that, but it seems like it is not possible to make a pattern with foreground color: white and background color: transparant/no fill

Anyone that have tried this?

If that would be possible it should be an acceptable solution to the problem, even though I think that it would look nicer if I could draw an anutoshape with semi-transparent fill and place it underneath the text in the cells.

 

[valdus]

OK, I've been thinking a lot and I have been coming up with many ideas, but none work 100%

I will share my latest idea and see if anyone has a solution to make it work:

I was thinking I could add brighter areas in the actual image file that is in the background, areas that match the places where the cells are. However, I will show this spreadsheet on a projector with unknown resolution. This means that I must be able to change the zoom of the sheet, since I want the contents to be as big as possible, but still fit on one screen.
But, the background image seems to be of constant size (in pixels) which means that if I do it this way it might be crappy when I show it on a projector with another resolution.

How can I get the background image to chage size in the same way as the cells when I change the zoom level in Excel?

 

[valdus]

Still no progress from my side. Just thought I summarize the questions. There are four questions, I hope that there is an answer to at least one of them. All of these would solve my problem, but differently good, I put them in priority order (i.e. I think solving question #1 is the best, #2 second best solution etc.):

1. How to fill a cell with semi-transparent color (e.g. 50% white to be able so see the background through the cell fill)
2. How to put autoshapes behing text (e.g. showing cell data on top of a filled rectangle)
3. How to zoom the sheet background picture the same amount as the cells are zoomed (e.g. if the zoom is changed from 100% to 140% the cell sizes increase, but the background should increase as well)
4. How to set the pattern in a cell to be a mix of "white" and "No fill" instead of "white" and e.g. "black".