Today, I added a new category to my blog: Excel tips. Those of you who know me will be aware of my penchant for MS Excel (Excel 5.0 being the most revolutionary piece of software ever written), so I thought I'd dedicate a corner of my beloved blog to it.
I'm not sure how useful this one is, nor where its business requirement came from, but it's quite cool. Excel allows you to create a dynamic picture of a range of cells, and for it to hover over the main body of the spreadsheet, as would any other picture. The beauty of this, however, is that the image changes as the cells' values change. Also, it's a hidden feature that many won't be aware of.
First of all, copy the cells that you want to make a picture of in the standard way. Then navigate to the place in the spreadsheet (either on the same sheet or a different sheet) where you want to plonk the picture. Now, instead of doing your standard paste, hold down Shift and click the Edit item on the main menu. As if by magic, the menu has changed slightly. Click Paste Picture Link, and there you have it. You can even rotate this picture to a cheeky angle to baffle your colleagues and to spice up your reports.
