There are a few reasons you might want to insert an image into an Excel spreadsheet. Maybe you’re keeping a catalogue of products that you offer, or you need to track information for which photos are of assistance to you.
The best way to do this is by using “comments” which have featured in all versions of Microsoft Office since Office 2000. By using comments you can keep the rest of your spreadsheet information available whilst maintaining near-instant access to the pictures, just like in the example below.
In Office 2007/2010 it’s relatively simple to embed images in comments, the first thing to do is to create your comment, simply right-click the cell and then click “Insert Comment”, as below:
This will produce a comment field for the cell in question. The next step is to right-click the BORDER of the comment box, this will bring up another menu, which you can use to edit the properties of the comment:
Click on “Format Comment” and you’ll bring up a new window, click the “Colours and Lines” tab and you’ll see the following:
Under the “Fill” section, click the “Color” dropdown box and then click “Fill Effects” at the bottom of the list. This will bring up a further window, as below:
Click the “Picture” tab (as above) and you are then able to select a picture from your computers hard disk. Once you’ve selected your picture, click OK and then OK again on the formatting window. Your picture will now appear in the comment box for the cell you’ve specified:
Your picture comment will only appear when the mouse is moved over the appropriate cell, but it’s still good as a point of reference should you need a reminder. It’s advised to only include small images (no high res. photos) in order to keep your Excel workbook size down, but if you’re only using the workbook on a single PC, this is less important.