Excel image in cells

Watch Video – How to Insert Picture into a Cell in Excel 

A few days ago, I was working with a data set that included a list of companies in Excel along with their logos.

I wanted to place the logo of each company in the cell adjacent to its name and lock it in such a way that when I resize the cell, the logo should resize as well.

I also wanted the logos to get filtered when I filter the name of the companies.

Wishful Thinking? Not Really.

You can easily insert a picture into a cell in Excel in a way that when you move, resize, and/or filter the cell,  the picture also moves/resizes/filters.

Below is an example where the logos of some popular companies are inserted in the adjacent column, and when the cells are filtered, the logos also get filtered with the cells.

This could also be useful if you’re working with products/SKUs and their images.

When you insert an image in Excel, it not linked to the cells and would not move, filter, hide, and resize with cells.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to:

• Insert a Picture Into a Cell in Excel.
• Lock the Picture in the cell so that it moves, resizes, and filters with the cells.

Insert Picture into a Cell in Excel

Here are the steps to insert a picture into a cell in Excel:

1. Go to the Insert tab.
2. Click on the Pictures option (it’s in the illustrations group).
3. In the ‘Insert Picture’ dialog box, locate the pictures that you want to insert into a cell in Excel.
4. Click on the Insert button.
5. Re-size the picture/image so that it can fit perfectly within the cell. 
6. Place the picture in the cell.
   • A cool way to do this is to first press the ALT key and then move the picture with the mouse. It will snap and arrange itself with the border of the cell as soon it comes close to it.

If you have multiple images, you can select and insert all the images at once (as shown in step 4).

You can also resize images by selecting it and dragging the edges. In the case of logos or product images, you may want to keep the aspect ratio of the image intact. To keep the aspect ratio intact, use the corners of an image to resize it.

When you place an image within a cell using the steps above, it will not stick with the cell in case you resize, filter, or hide the cells. If you want the image to stick to the cell, you need to lock the image to the cell it’s placed n.

To do this, you need to follow the additional steps as shown in the section below.

Lock the Picture with the Cell in Excel

Once you have inserted the image into the workbook, resized it ti fit within a cell, and placed it in the cell, you need to lock it to make sure it moves, filters, and hides with the cell.

Here are the steps to lock a picture in a cell:

1. Right-click on the picture and select Format Picture.
2. In the Format Picture pane, select Size & Properties and with the options in Properties, select ‘Move and size with cells’.

That’s It!

Now you can move cells, filter it, or hide it, and the picture will also move/filter/hide.

Try it yourself.. Download the Example File

This could be a useful trick when you have a list of products with their images, and you want to filter certain categories of products along with their images.

You can also use this trick while creating Excel Dashboards.

You May Also Like the Following Excel Tutorials:

• Insert a Picture in a Comment in Excel.
• Insert Line Break in Excel Formula result.
• Picture Lookup Technique using Named Ranges.
• How to Insert Watermark in Excel Worksheets.
• How to Lock Cells in Excel.

While my recommendation is to take advantage of the automation available from Doality.com specifically Picture Manager for Excel

The following vba code should meet your criteria. Good Luck!

This code will insert the image into the chosen cell and will scale it to fit the exact width and height of the cell. For example:

Instructions:

Add a Button Control to your Excel Workbook (click Developer tab, Insert, Active X, Command Button) and then double click on the button in order to get to the VBA Code —>

Sub Button1_Click()
    Dim filePathCell As Range
    Dim imageLocationCell As Range
    Dim filePath As String

    Set filePathCell = Application.InputBox(Prompt:= _
        "Please select the cell that contains the reference path to your image file", _
            Title:="Specify File Path", Type:=8)
            
     Set imageLocationCell = Application.InputBox(Prompt:= _
        "Please select the cell where you would like your image to be inserted.", _
            Title:="Image Cell", Type:=8)

    If filePathCell Is Nothing Then
       MsgBox ("Please make a selection for file path")
       Exit Sub
    Else
      If filePathCell.Cells.Count > 1 Then
        MsgBox ("Please select only a single cell that contains the file location")
        Exit Sub
      Else
        filePath = Cells(filePathCell.Row, filePathCell.Column).Value
      End If
    End If

    If imageLocationCell Is Nothing Then
       MsgBox ("Please make a selection for image location")
       Exit Sub
    Else
      If imageLocationCell.Cells.Count > 1 Then
        MsgBox ("Please select only a single cell where you want the image to be populated")
        Exit Sub
      Else
        InsertPic filePath, imageLocationCell
        Exit Sub
      End If
    End If
End Sub

Then create your Insert Method as follows (this can follow the button’s code from above):

Private Sub InsertPic(filePath As String, ByVal insertCell As Range)
    Dim xlShapes As Shapes
    Dim xlPic As Shape
    Dim xlWorksheet As Worksheet
    
    If IsEmpty(filePath) Or Len(Dir(filePath)) = 0 Then
        MsgBox ("File Path invalid")
        Exit Sub
    End If
    
    Set xlWorksheet = ActiveSheet
    
    Set xlPic = xlWorksheet.Shapes.AddPicture(filePath, msoFalse, msoCTrue, insertCell.Left, insertCell.Top, insertCell.Width, insertCell.Height)
    xlPic.LockAspectRatio = msoCTrue
End Sub

Hi, Insiders! My name is Elisabetta Caldesi, and I’m a Product Manager on the Excel team. I’m excited to share with you a new function, called IMAGE, which returns an image within a cell.

IMAGE function

We’ve received a lot of feedback about the wish to be able to insert images in cells, and we’re happy to deliver! Your images can now be part of the worksheet, instead of floating on top. You can move and resize cells, sort and filter, and work with images within an Excel table. This improvement unlocks and facilitates many new scenarios, such as tracking inventories, creating employee dashboards, or building games and brackets.

How it works

The IMAGE function inserts images into cells from a source location, along with alternative text. All you need to do is type the following into a cell: =IMAGE(source, [alt_text], [sizing], [height], [width]), where:

• [Required] source is the URL path of the image file, using an “https” protocol. (NOTE: Supported file formats include BMP, JPG/JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG, ICO, and WEBP.)
• [Optional] alt_text is the alternative text that describes the image (for accessibility).
• [Optional] sizing specifies the image dimensions. There are several possible values:
  • 0: Fit the image in the cell and maintain its aspect ratio.
  • 1: Fill the cell with the image and ignore its aspect ratio.
  • 2: Maintain the original image size, which may exceed the cell boundary.
  • 3: Customize the image size by using the height and width
• [Optional] height and width define the height and width of the image only when using sizing 3 option.

Scenarios to try

• Insert a sphere in a cell by typing =IMAGE("https://support.content.office.net/en-us/media/2d9e717a-0077-438f-8e5e-f85a1305d4ad.jpg", "Sphere")

• Insert a cylinder in a cell by:
  1. Copying and pasting the following URL in cell B1: https://support.content.office.net/en-us/media/35aecc53-b3c1-4895-8a7d-554716941806.jpg
  2. Entering Cylinder in cell B2.
  3. Entering =IMAGE(B1,B2,0) in cell A3 and pressing the ENTER key.

Known issues

• If the URL to the image file you are using is pointing to a site that requires authentication, the image will not render.
• Zooming in and out with images in cells may distort the images.
• Moving between platforms (for example, Windows and Mac) may result in irregular image rendering.

Availability

The IMAGE function is available to Insiders running the following Beta Channel builds:

• Windows: Version 2209 (Build 15608.10000) or later
• Mac: Version 16.65 (Build 22080701) or later
• iOS: Version 2.65 (Build 22080701) or later
• Android: 16.0.15608.10000 or later

Don’t have it yet? It’s probably us, not you.

Features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as an Insider, have had the opportunity to try it.

Feedback

As you use the preview of the new IMAGE function in Excel, we hope you will join us in this journey. Click Help > Feedback to share your feedback and help us prioritize our work.

Learn what other information you should include in your feedback to ensure its actionable and reaches the right people. We’re excited to hear from you!

Do you want to insert an image into a cell? This post is going to show you exactly how to put a picture in a cell in Microsoft Excel!

An Excel cell can contain many different data types such as text, numbers, dates, Booleans, and error values. Until recently, images have not been a data type that you could insert into a cell.

Previously, you could only place the image above the cell and then change the image properties so it moves and resizes with the cells.

There are new features available in Excel that allow you to add images directly inside a cell. This means images are a proper data type and can be used in similar ways to other data such as text or numbers.

Get your copy of the example workbook used in this post and follow along!

Insert an Image in a Cell with Data Types

This first method won’t allow you to get any image embedded in your cell but is a quick and easy way to see images in action using Data Types.

Data types have been available for a while and allow you to pull certain geographical or financial data from the web.

These data types contain many pieces of data inside a single cell. A country data type might contain information about the population, capital, current president, or current prime minister.

The Geography data type in particular also includes a related image. A country, state, or province data type might have the associated flag image included in the data type.

This image can be extracted from the data type into a cell.

This example shows a small list of country names in Excel. These are plain text, so there is nothing special about them until they are converted into geography data types.

You can follow these steps to create a data type and extract the image into the grid.

1. Select your list of cells with plain text geographical names such as country names.
2. Go to the Data tab.
3. Click on the Geography data type.

This will convert the plain-text country names into country data types. You’ll notice the small map icon to the left of the country name which indicates they are now Geography data types.

When you click on this map icon, it will open a pop-up data card that displays all the information contained in the cell. This can include an image of the flag at the top of the card.

Now you will be able to extract the flag image into a cell.

1. Select all the data type cells.
2. Click on the Extract button that appears at the top right of the selected cells.
3. Choose the Image option from the list.

This will extract the data type image into the adjacent cell. You can see this is really a formula =B2.Image that references the cell with the data type by using a dot notation to extract a piece of data from the data type.

💡 Tip: You can copy and paste as values so the image will then be disconnected from the data type.

Insert an Image in a Cell with Power BI Organization Data Types

The Geography data type is perfect if you want a flag image inside your cell!

But what if you want your own custom images added in a cell?

You can build your own custom Organization data type. These can then be used by anyone inside your organization in any of your spreadsheets.

Organization data types also allow you to specify an image URL which can then be extracted to a cell.

⚠️ Warning: This feature requires a Power BI pro license and a table of data that contains a column of image URLs.

1. Open the Power BI desktop app.
2. Click on the Import data from Excel or choose the Get Data option in the Home tab if your image dataset is not in Excel.

This will open a file picker menu where you can select the Excel file with your image URLs.

1. Select the Excel file with your image URLs.
2. Press the Open button.

This will open up the Navigator window.

1. Select the table or sheet that contains your image URL data.
2. Press the Load button.

1. Go to the Model view.
2. Select the table you loaded.
3. Toggle the Is featured table option to Yes in the Properties window pane.

1. Add a Description for the table.
2. Select a Row Label column from the data. This will be the text displayed in the cell when you’re using this data type in Excel.
3. Select a Key column from the data. This should be a unique identifier from the data.

In this example, the Row Label and Key column are the same since the name is what you want to be displayed in Excel and it also uniquely identifies the product.

Now you’ll need to set the column properties for the column of image URLs.

1. Go to the Data view.
2. Select the column that contains the image URLs.
3. Go to the Column tools tab.
4. Select Image URL for the Data category.

Now you need to publish this dataset to the Power BI online service so the Organization data type will show up in Excel.

1. Go to the Home tab.
2. Click on the Publish button.

1. Select any workspace other than My workspace.
2. Press the Select button.

📝 Note: My workspace is your own personal workspace in Power BI online. No one else will have access and the Organization data type feature does not work with it.

Now you can open Excel and use the new Organization data type. Just make sure Excel is signed into a Microsoft account on the same Microsoft tenant as the workspace you published in Power BI.

1. Select some data from your Row Label column.
2. Go to the Data tab in the Excel ribbon.
3. Click on the button to expand the Data Type shelf.
4. Click on your custom data type found in the From your organization section.

This will convert the items into the data type and you will be able to extract the image the same way as with the Geography data type.

In this example, the formula =B2.Image will extract the picture since Image was the name of the column that was set to an Image URL type.

Insert an Image in a Cell with the IMAGE Function

Creating an organization data type is a long process, especially if you only want to add an image inside a cell.

Thankfully there is a better way to insert an image if you have a public web address for it.

The IMAGE function allows you to insert an image in the cell based on a URL.

IMAGE Function Syntax

= IMAGE ( url, alt_text, sizing, height, width )

The IMAGE function has the following required arguments.

• url is the web address of the image you want to display in the cell.

The IMAGE function has the following optional arguments.

• alt_text is an input for an alternative text for accessibility.
• sizing is an option to determine how you want the image to fit into the cell.
  • 0 will fit the cell and maintain the image aspect ratio.
  • 1 will fill the cell and ignore the image aspect ratio.
  • 2 will add the image and maintain its original size.
  • 3 will allow you to enter a custom height and width size for the image.
• height allows you to set the height of the image.
• width allows you to set the width of the image.

📝 Note: The height and width arguments are required when sizing is set to 3.

IMAGE Function Example

= IMAGE ( "https://www.howtoexcel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Insert-Images-Into-Cells.jpg" )

The above formula will insert an image from this website. The url argument can be entered as a text string or you can reference a cell that contains the web address.

💡 Tip: You can use an online drive app such as SharePoint or OneDrive to create a public web address that can be used in the IMAGE function. Set the file access as shared with anyone with the link!

Conclusions

Getting an image inside a cell has long been a sought-after feature in Excel. But until recently, there has only been a poor workaround method available.

Now there are some great options available for images in a cell.

You can use the Geography data type quickly get flag images inside cells, and if you want a custom image you can create Organization data types with Power BI.

Images can also be entered into the cell via the IMAGE function. This is a quick and easy way to get any image with a web address into an Excel cell.

Did you know about these features? What are you going to use them for? Let me know in the comments section below!

Excel is generally said to be used for making complex calculations with formula and other functions. However, many times you may need to insert an image and picture in excel worksheet to give a visual representation of what is written in the excel. In this blog, we would learn how to insert an image or picture in an Excel cell. We would also unlock the technique to lock an image or picture into an excel cell such that when we resize or filter the cells containing the image, the picture automatically gets resized or filtered along with that cell.

This technique is very useful for creating a business product catalog with the product name in a cell and its image in the adjacent cell.

The below demonstration is the glimpse of what we are going to achieve in this blog.

Please download the practice file using ‘Download’ button below.

Let us now first unlock the technique to insert and resize the image in a cell in Excel.

Follow the below steps to add an image in excel:

Under the excel ribbon options, click on the ‘Insert‘ tab and under the ‘Illustration‘ group, click on the ‘Pictures‘ button.

As a result, the ‘Insert Picture‘ dialog box would appear on your screen. Navigate to the path which contains the pictures, select all of them, and then click on the ‘Insert’ button. Refer to the image below:

You would notice that the selected pictures gets inserted in to the excel worksheet.

The next step now is to place the pictures in the relevant cells in Excel. To do this, left-click on the picture and drag it to the relevant cell and finally release the mouse cursor. Refer to the below demonstration.

Once the pictures are put in relevant cells, the next step is to resize it to fit the image or picture in the cell. The two most common ways that almost everybody is aware of are-

• By adjusting the picture borders by using the circles on the edges and borders of the image.
• By manually entering the height and width of the picture under the ‘Format’ tab.

Interesting Way to Exactly Fit Image or Picture to Cell Borders

The third and the interesting way to exactly fit the image or picture to excel cell walls is this one –

• Click on the image, and press and hold the ALT key on your keyboard.
• Do not release the ALT press, and simply drag the image toward the top-left corner of the cell. As you come closure to the cell corner, the image would automatically stick exactly to the cell’s top-left corner.
• Again, do not release the ALT press, and drag the bottom-right corner of the image toward the bottom-right corner of cell. See the demonstration below.

With this, we have completed the technique of inserting an image into the cell in Excel.

Now, let us perform one small activity, to understand something interesting.

Simply, try to resize the column with contains the images (column B). You would notice that the image would not automatically resize along with the cell. It remains intact at the same position. Similarly, if you filter column A, the images in column B would not accordingly filter, as demonstrated below:

Reason – At this point in time, the picture is not a part of the cell, but it is placed above the cell in the worksheet.

To lock the picture into the cell in Excel, so that it can be resized and filtered along with the cell, follow the below section of the blog.

Related Post : How to Lookup on Picture in Excel

How to Lock Picture or Image Into Excel Cell

To lock the image or picture in excel cell, we need to change the properties of the image. Below steps would help you in this:

This means, if you now resize the cell, the image would also get resized accordingly. Similarly, the images in the filtered cell would also hide along with the cell.

With this, we have reached the end of this blog. Now, make your own business catalog with the images as a part of your cell. Share your views and comments in the comment section.