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Easy Picture Transparency in Excel

October 01, 2018 - by

Easy Picture Transparency in Excel

The Microsoft Ignite Conference was held in Orlando last week. There were several new Excel features announced.

Today, a quick article about the Picture Transparency tools in Excel. You can easily insert a photograph in Excel using Insert, Picture. But that photo is displayed on top of the cells and you can not see the values in the cells.

Mary Ellen Jelen's photo of the Falcon Heavy launch is obscuring the words in Excel
Mary Ellen Jelen's photo of the Falcon Heavy launch is obscuring the words in Excel

Select the picture. On the Picture Tools | Format tab, there is a new Transparency slider. Choose one of the thumbnails to adjust the photo transparency.

At 50% transparency, you can start to make out the words behind the photo
At 50% transparency, you can start to make out the words behind the photo

If you need to fine-tune the settings, you can use the menu item and adjust from 0 to 100% transparency.

80% transparency
80% transparency

The only difficulty now is that you can't click on cell A1 to select it. You will have to either click to the right of the picture and use the arrow keys, or press F5 or Ctrl+G to display the Go To dialog. Type A1 and click OK.

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Download Excel File

To download the excel file: easy-picture-transparency-in-excel.xlsx

Excel Thought Of the Day

I've asked my Excel Master friends for their advice about Excel. Today's thought to ponder:

"Excel everyday!"

Title Photo: Dinh Pham on Unsplash