New to Excel 2007, unless JP corrects me, is the Picture Selection Pane.
This is a neat little tool which allows quick sorting and editing of the visibility of pictures and other objects on a worksheet. Those other objects includes Charts, Shapes, Word Art, Text Boxes, Pictures and other embedded objects.
Earlier this week on the Chandoo.org/Forums, Ankit asked a question about un-hiding pictures that seemed to disappear from his worksheet.
I responded with a little bit of VBA code which he was able to use to make all his pictures visible.
Sub unhide_pics()
Set DrwObj = ActiveSheet.DrawingObjects
For Each Pict In DrwObj
Pict.Visible = True 'change to False to hide
Next
End SubI later realized that had Ankir been using Excel 2007/10 he could have solved his problem without the need for any code.
How ?
Use the Selection Pane.
Goto a page with an object, hidden or not
Goto the Page Layout, Selection Pane tab.
What Can I Do ?
In the selection pane window you will see a list of objects that are on your worksheet. The list shows visible and non-visible (Hidden) objects.
Visibility
Each Object has a small picture beside it showing either an Eye (Visible) or a Window (see through), this indicates the visible status.
Click on an eye to hide an object,
Click on a blank pane to unhide the object
Depth Order
The location of the objects in the list also shows the position in the Depth Field of the objects. That is Objects at the top of the list are in front of those objects below it in the list.
You can move objects up or down using the re-order buttons which moves objects closer to the front or rear of other objects.
Show All/Hide All
Click on the Show All/Hide All buttons to do exactly that.
Rename Objects
Click on the name of the object and type a new name
Advanced Use
Hold Ctrl and Click on several objects in the selection pane to add them to your selection
The selected objects are highlighted in the selection pane
Right click on the objects to Group/Ungroup them
Grouped Objects are shown in the selection Pane as a group
The group can be hidden/shown or individual members of the group can be hidden/shown
Uses:
Cleanup Web Copy/Paste
If you have ever selected a large amount of text from a web site and pasted it into Excel, you will have inevitably collected several graphical objects along the way, some visible and some hidden
Use the selection Pane to select them all at once and press delete
Change Company Logos
You may have a report which you generate for differing companies
Install all the logos and Hide/Show as required.
Look for Missing Links
I have seen Excel workbooks where people have an external link and they cannot find it.
Links can be attached to Drawing Objects etc and these may be hidden.
The Selection Pane is a quick way to search for those objects without code
30 Responses to “Great News: Chandoo becomes MVP”
Congratulations! It's well deserved. 🙂
This is amazing. Hearty congratulations and a rocking new year ahead!!!
Congrats! I have learnt alot from your site... and the most important is learning how to achieve the most with the simplest concepts.
Thanks for the excel calendar. Is it possible to get a simple big fonted calendar printable on an A4 size paper without any distracive notes or visuals? BTW, I have already signed up for your newsletter. With warm regards and
Gratefully yours
50+ year old CHarish.
Hey Chandoo,
Great to hear that. Congratulations! The best new year gift, I would say. Keep it up, u've been doing extraordinary work for the excel users community.
Regards,
Pankaj Verma
Congrats dude... fantastic news!
congratulations! your site is great, this is well deserved
Rich
I recently found your site, I visit many. The tips that you provide are in the top 1% of all the sites I visit. Keep on Excelling.
Arnold
South Africa
Congratulations, Chandoo! That's a great way to start the year and make the PHD even better.
Congratulations, Chandoo.
Your site is one of most useful on the net. Happy new year and lot of ideas you will present for us.
Congrats.
Just read your name in an email from Abhishek. Well deserved.
Congratulations, and Happy New Year.
Greetings from Rio de Janeiro my friend! You trully deserve it!
Nive way to start 2009! Keep up the good work!
FC
That was quite forseeable , so you have now really got your PhD in excel.
Anyways Chandoo you have made excel a real Fun doo
I will like you to write some more on INDEX and MATCH function in near future.
@Hey Chandoo ! Congrates....
Ab to treat mangta hai !
Well deserved Chandoo!!
Congrat's!! Very well deserved 🙂
i always browsed mr.excel and used to see MVP writtne below names of people who used to solve queries in excel forum there......i just used to admire as to what they have special in them that they are MVP......
but now i got my answer...............u deserve it man..........
@All: thanks everyone 🙂
Congratulations Chandoo, nice job!
Chandoo,
A well deserved recognition and a good start to the New Year. Continue your good work.
Subbu
Many Congratulations.
You deserve a Ph.D. 🙂
congrats.....
Congrats dude. Rock on!
[...] charting community in 2007 and has been growing strongly ever since. In year 2009, I have received the MVP award from Microsoft. Just few days back I have become a dad [...]
Respected sir,
I am impressed!.... Good job done.. Keep it up...
Sir, How to be a MVP certified person. What level of knowledge is required for it? send me links if possible.
Please reply...
Regards,
Dipak Khalasi.
Dipak -
The first thing you need to cultivate is the ability to search the web effectively. You could start by Googling "Microsoft MVP".
[...] boy and girl which has been made hectic and incredibly fun ever since to their life.He has been awarded MVP status in 2009 by Microsoft(and renewed in 2010,2011 & 2012).His MVP profile is here.If you want to contact him direct then [...]
Congrats Chandoo!!
[…] Chandoo becomes MVP […]