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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;calcol, post: 8460323, member: 77639&quot;]Lots of folks, like me, keep their coin inventory data in Excel spreadsheets.&nbsp; And like me, they would like to have pictures of their coins in the spreadsheet.&nbsp; There are a several ways to do it.&nbsp; One is to insert pictures directly into the spreadsheet.&nbsp;&nbsp; Problem is the pictures are visible all the time. If you have very many coins, the area covered with text and pictures becomes enormous.&nbsp; It can be a problem for reformatting or printing the spreadsheet.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can put the pictures on designated sheets in a workbook, and particular coins will be visible only when you click on their sheet.&nbsp; But that makes scrolling through your collection inconvenient.&nbsp; And the problems of reformatting and printing are even more difficult.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can use macros to have pictures pop-up and do lots of neat things.&nbsp; But how are your VBA programming skills?</p><p><br /></p><p>I prefer to have the pictures pop-up when the cursor is hovered over certain cells and otherwise be invisible.</p><p><br /></p><p>The way to do it is with notes/comments.&nbsp; Some newer versions of Excel, like mine, use the term, “notes”, for comments.&nbsp; If you have a version of Excel that uses “comments”, just substitute “comment” for “note” below.&nbsp; I organize my spreadsheet so that each coin has a row.&nbsp; If you organize yours differently, make appropriate adjustments to the directions below.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the row for each coin, I have a cell with the contents of “ob pic” for the obverse picture and another with “rv pic” for the reverse picture.&nbsp;&nbsp; Other cells in the row have info like mint, date, description, cost, etc.&nbsp; Do yours however you want, but there can be only one picture per cell.&nbsp; However, you could join multiple pictures into one with image-editing software and put the composite in one cell. The cell doesn’t have to have contents describing the picture; it could be cost, mint, whatever.&nbsp; However, I find it simpler and more flexible for pictures to have their dedicated cells.</p><p><br /></p><p>The basic concept is that the picture will become the background for the note.&nbsp; Left click on the cell; then right click on it.&nbsp; In the pop-up menu, click on “New Note” (“Insert Comment” in some versions).&nbsp; If there is any text in the note, delete it.&nbsp; Now place the cursor on an edge or corner of the note box so that you see crossing arrows.&nbsp; It is very important that the crossing arrows be visible for the next steps to work.&nbsp; Right-click on the crossing arrows and from the pop-up menu select “Format Comment”.&nbsp; It will show “Format Comment”, not “Format Note”, in most&nbsp; versions of Excel.&nbsp; A pop-up menu should appear with multiple tabs.&nbsp; If the only tab is “Font”, the cursor was inside the box rather than on the edge or corner when you right clicked; so, try again.</p><p><br /></p><p>Select the “Colors and Lines” tab.&nbsp; Under “Fill” and “Color:”, left click the down arrow.&nbsp; At the bottom of the menu with the colored squares, left click “Fill Effects”.&nbsp; Select “Picture” from the pop-up menu.&nbsp; Left click “Select Picture”.&nbsp; A menu may appear with choices of “Work Offline” or “Cancel”; choose “Work Offline”.&nbsp; You will now be given the opportunity to select a picture.&nbsp; Do so.&nbsp; Excel understands most image formats.&nbsp; Once you have the picture file name in the “File Name:” box, click on “Insert”.&nbsp; This action brings you back to the “Fill Effects” menu, and you should see the picture in the box.&nbsp; Check “Lock picture aspect ratio”; click OK.&nbsp; &nbsp; The “Format Comment” menu should appear; click OK.</p><p><br /></p><p>The picture or part of it should appear in the note box.&nbsp; Use the grab handles on the box to match the aspect ratio of the box to the picture.&nbsp; Click on some other cell, and the note box should disappear.&nbsp; Hover the cursor over the picture cell, and the picture should pop-up.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you want to change the picture, left click on the cell and then select “Delete Note” (or “Delete Comment”).&nbsp; Then use the procedure described above.&nbsp; If you want to change the aspect ratio or size of an existing note box, left click on the cell and choose “Edit Note” (or “Edit Comment”).&nbsp; The note box may now appear as an empty box.&nbsp; Simply left click on the border of the box, and the picture will appear.&nbsp; Now use the grab handles to change the size or aspect ratio of the box.&nbsp; You can also type text in the note/comment, but it will be in front of the picture (the picture is the background).&nbsp; Save and backup the spreadsheet!</p><p><br /></p><p>You should be aware that by incorporating pictures into the spreadsheet, its file size can become enormous depending on how many pictures are incorporated and their resolution.&nbsp; For many of my coin pictures, I create lower resolution versions for incorporation into the spreadsheet while keeping the high res versions in photo folders.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cal[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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