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The Excel camera – smile please! By Simon Hurst
Simon Hurst offers some tips on how to use Excel's little know 'camera' feature.The recent Excel Zone compendium article on printing led to an extensive exchange of comments – mainly centred around setting the print area to include several individual, distinct areas. This is relatively easy to accomplish by holding down the Control key while selecting additional areas. However, if the print area is made up of separate areas, then Excel will print each on a separate page.
Of course, you could create a separate sheet with links to all the different areas, arranged as you wish them to print, but this might be tricky to maintain. Changing the formatting of the source areas, or inserting rows and columns would all require you to make corresponding changes in your printing sheet.
One possible solution is to use Excel's little known 'camera' feature. The camera 'takes a picture' of a selected area, and you can then paste that picture wherever you want it. It updates automatically, and because it is a picture rather than a set of links to the original cells, any formatting of the source is automatically reflected in the picture. The picture will also adjust to include any rows or columns inserted within the source area.
There are two ways to create a linked picture. You can either use the camera tool, or use the 'Paste Picture Link' option. To use the camera you first need to add the button to an existing toolbar. To do this, choose View, Toolbars, Customize. Click on the 'Commands' tab and then the Tools category. The camera tool is close to the bottom of the list of Commands – just drag it to whichever of your existing toolbars you want it to appear on. In Excel 2007, right click on the Quick Access Toolbar, choose 'Customize Quick Access Toolbar', choose commands from: 'Commands Not in Ribbon' and 'Camera' should be in alphabetical order. Click on it and then the 'Add' button to add it to the toolbar. Now select the first area that you want to include on your printing sheet and click the camera tool – this 'takes a picture' of the selected area. Now go to your printing sheet and click at the top left-hand corner of where you want the picture to appear. You would then use the same technique to add the other separate areas to your printing sheet, and then set a print area on that sheet that includes the individual areas.
The alternative approach uses 'Paste Picture Link'. Select your first area and copy it, go to the printing sheet and click the cell at the top left-hand corner of where you want the picture to appear. Now hold down the Shift key and click 'Edit' on the menu, you should see an extra option - 'Paste Picture Link'. Click on this option to paste the picture link to the printing sheet. In Excel 2007 the Paste button dropdown on the Clipboard section of the Home ribbon tab includes an 'As Picture' option, which includes the 'Paste Picture Link' sub-option. Copy and 'Paste Picture Link' any further areas as with the use of the camera tool.
A rather obscure but interesting Excel tool with perhaps relatively few uses. Do let us know how you are already using the camera, or any other situations where you think it might prove useful.
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Number of comments: 4
AccountingWEB.co.uk 2-Jul-2008
Categories: IT Features, Software, ExcelZone Features
Times read: 4747
by 1 user(s)
Hi Simon, I read your commentary on Excel regularly and appreciate these types of tips. Our commercial existence revolves around BI in Excel and this tip will be very handy for our users. Here is a link (http://www.alchemex.net/webform/emailform/emailform.html) to download a free booklet of 50 other power Excel tips if you would like to share it with your readers. Thanks again, Gary.
Liam - many thanks for the PowerPoint example and Paul thanks for taking the trouble to let us know how useful you found the article - it's great to know that something has been of help.
Regards
Simon
It is rare these days for me to be "WOWd" and even if I am, I rarely let the other person know, but you have managed it.
My immediate thought was of a number of huge messy spreadsheets that we or clients prepare and within which we have to set up little "print this bit" areas because the rest of the sheet is such a mess or the key figures are half a mile apart. Not only is this time consuming but when the 5 little bits are printed or PDFd we end up with 5 sheets with differing positions on the page and where text & numbers look either 20 or 6 point.
Brill
I use the paste picture link to show tables on powerpoint pages. They are embedded as pictures and are thus not adjustable by the reader, unlike a simple copy/paste table would be.
You only need one use for a feature if it's a good one.
