Excel 2013: The Missing Manual

Chapter 19. Inserting Graphics

Most Excel fans concentrate on numbers, formulas, and charts when they create worksheets. But Excel has another dimension—graphics. In fact, Excel includes a slew of drawing tools that may seem like they belong more in an artsy illustration program than in the rigid confines of a spreadsheet. Some of these drawing features are shameless frills that just take up space on the Excel ribbon. Others are genuinely useful, letting you add beneficial touches and highlight important information with real pizzazz.

Excel’s drawing capabilities fall into the following four categories:

• Picture-handling. These features are what most people think of when they think about graphics. Picture-handling lets you take picture files on your computer and insert them into an Excel worksheet. For instance, if you created the perfect company logo in another program, you may want to place it in a blank spot on your worksheet.

• Clip art. Clip art graphics are usually cartoonish, themed pictures (like a stack of dollar bills or a drawing of a globe). While you probably don’t need this stuff in most worksheets, Excel’s clip art features are still quite impressive. Instead of limiting you to a small selection of preinstalled image files, Excel lets you search an online collection of thousands of images using keywords.

• Shape-drawing (and fancy text). Excel’s shape-drawing tools let you create images directly on your worksheet. These shapes include arrows, circles, stars, banners, floating ...