Form Controls
What Are Form Controls?
Form Controls are objects which you can place onto an Excel Worksheet which give you the functionality to interact with your models data.
You can use these controls on worksheets to help select data. For example, drop-down boxes, list boxes, spinners, and scroll bars are useful for selecting items from a list. Option Buttons and Check Boxes allow selection of various options. Buttons allow execution of VBA code.
By adding a control to a worksheet and linking it to a cell, you can return a numeric value for the current position of the control. You can use that numeric value in conjunction with the Offset, Index or other worksheet functions to return values from lists.
Use below links to quickly learn about Form Controls:
- What are form controls & introduction
- Button Control
- Label Control
- Check box Control
- Option Button Control
- List box Control
- Combo box Control
- Spin Button Control
- Scroll bar Control
- Group box Controlg
- Using Form Controls – techniques & examples
- Other Controls in Excel
Where Are Form Controls?
Form Controls are located on the Developer Tab under Insert Form Control.
PS: If you do not have developer tab, learn how to enable it.
You will notice 2 types of Form Controls, being Form Controls and Active X controls.
This post will only be dealing with Form Controls. The Active X controls, similarities and differences will be discussed towards the end of the post.
How Do I Insert a Form Control
To Insert a Form Control goto the Form Control Menu and click on the Form Control you want to insert.
Now click on the worksheet in the location you want your form control.
Don’t worry about the location or size you can change those later.
What Are The Different Form Controls?
There are several types of Form Controls offering a range of interactivity from a simple display through to interactive controls which allow multiple selection or interactive selection of values.
| Control Name | Description | Function |
| Button | Push Button | Executes a macro |
| Check Box | Allow selection of non-exclusive options | Multiple On/Off options |
| Combo Box | Drop Down selection Box | Select items from a Drop down list |
| Group Box | Layout element which groups common elements | Nil |
| Label | A Text label | Can be static or linked to a cell |
| List Box | Fixed selection box | Select items from a list |
| Option Button | Allow selection of exclusive options | Exclusive Single On/Off option |
| Scroll bar | Allow Horizontal or Vertical scrolling | Increases or decreases a cells value by a fixed amount |
| Spin Button | Increment/decrement a value by a fixed amount | Increases or decreases a cells in steps by a fixed amount |
These are discussed individually below
Form Control Types
Button (Form Control)
The Button Form Control is as its name suggests simply a Button.
Pressing the Button allows execution of a macro.
The Button has no other controls.
Button Text
You can right click on the button and change the buttons Text (Edit Text) and enter the text you want displayed on the button.
The Button’s text can be linked to a cell, select the Button, In the formula Bar enter a link to a cell. eg: =$C$3 and accept. The Button’s text will now change as the contents of the cell C3 change.
You can change the Text Style including Font, Color and Text Direction using the Format Control (Ctrl 1) option.
Assign Macro
Right click on the Button and select Assign Macro
The Assign Macro dialog will pop up.
Select the macro you want to assign to the button.
Label (Form Control)
The Label Form Control is also as its name suggests simply a Label.
The Label will display text either fixed or from a linked cell
You can right click on the button and change the buttons text (Edit Text).
The Button’s text can be linked to a cell, select the Button, In the formula Bar enter a link to a cell
eg: =$C$3 and accept. The Button’s text will now change as the contents of the cell C3 change.
Unlike the Button you cannot change the Text Style, Font, Color or Text Direction.
Typically a label is put in front of another Control to explain or add a title to the control.
Labels would rarely be used on a Worksheet as a label as they have limited text format properties.
Users would be better served using either cell text or a Text Box where full text formatting is allowed.
Labels come into use when setting up custom Dialog Forms which are used by VBA applications for custom data entry or other uses.
Check Box (Form Control)
The Check Box form Control allows selection of a number of non-exclusive options.
That is any number of Check Box controls may be implemented and they independently be on or off and have no relationship to each other.
The Check Box Form Control returns the value indicating its status, either True (selected) or False (not selected), to a linked cell.
To link a Format Control to a cell, Right Click the Format Control and select Format Control…
Option Button (Form Control)
The Option Button form Control allows the selection of an exclusive option from a number of alternatives.
That is only one Option Button Form Control may be selected at a time, the remainder are automatically turned off.
The Option Button Form Control returns the value of the Option Button indicating its status to a linked cell.
In the Example above the Option Buttons are linked to cell E2.
You only need link one Option Button to cell E2, Excel automatically links the remaining option buttons to teh same cell.
Selecting a Different Option Button automatically deselelects the other Option Buttons and changes the linked cells value
List Box (Form Control)
The List box allows the selection of one or more items from a list.
The list is sourced from a Range of cells in the above case it was F2:F17.
The List Form Control returns an Index Number or position of the selected item to the Cell Link, 5 in the example above.
The Input Range and Cell Link are setup by Right Clicking the control and select Format Control…
The Number of items visible in the list box is determined by the size of the list box
If there are more items than will fit in the list box then a scroll bar is automatically added to the list box to enable there selection.
Combo Box (Form Control)
The Combo Box allows the selection of one or more items from a drop down list.
The Combo Box use is similar to the list box except that it has a drop down selection list instead of a fixed length selection list.
The list is sourced from a Range of cells in the example below it was F2:F17.
The List Form Control returns an Index Number or position of the selected item to the Cell Link B10, 9 in the example below.
The Input Range, Cell Link and size of the Drtop Down Box are setup by Right Clicking the control and select Format Control…
Spin Button (Form Control)
The Spin Button is a simple toggle button that allows the increase or decrease of a linked cells value by a certain pre-defined amount.
The Cell Link and Lower, Upper Limits and Step Size parameters are setup by Right Clicking the control and select Format Control…
The Lower, Upper Limits and Step Size must be Integers. If you want to increase a cell by fractional amounts you will need to for example set the range from 0 to 1000 in steps of 1 and then devide the linked cell by 10 which will give a Range of 0 to 100 in steps of 0.1
Scroll Bar (Form Control)
The Scroll Bar Form Control often referred to as a Slider is a simple linear slider that allows the increase or decrease of a linked cells value by sliding a bar either left/right or up/down.
Scroll Bars can be placed either Horizontally or Vertically by dragging the corner.
Scroll bars are incremented by the Step Size by clicking the ends of the bars or dragging the slider or by a Page Jump Size by using Page up[/down or clicking either side of the slider bar.
The Cell Link, Lower, Upper Limits, Incremental Change and Page Change parameters are setup by Right Clicking the control and select Format Control…
The Lower, Upper Limits, Incremental Change and Page Change must be Integers. If you want to increase a cell by fractional amounts you will need to for example set the range from 0 to 1000 in steps of 1 and then devide the linked cell by 10 which will give a Range of 0 to 100 in steps of 0.1
Group Box (Form Control)
The Group Box Form Control isn’t really a Form Control at all, as it allows no interactivity.
What it is used for is grouping similar controls so that functional groups of controls can be maintained and the users flow is directed around a form.
Using the Form Controls
General Use
The use of the information from a form control is limited by your imagination.
Typical uses are
- Selecting items for a chart
- Selecting data sets
- Moving data sets
- Adjusting values in a model
As described in each of the above Form Controls is that the Form Controls do not return a value directly from a list, they all return either a number or an index number relative to the position of the item in a list.
Examples of all the Form Controls and examples of their use can be found in the attached file:
Excel 2003 Examples or Excel 2007+ Examples
or
Have a browse through the dashboards presented during Dashboard Week
or
For some Extreme Examples of Spreadsheet Interactivity using Form Controls and a little bit of VBA code:
Running Macros
Apart from the Button Form Control whose only purpose is to Run Macro’s, all Form Controls can be linked to a Macro.
This is done by Right Clicking on the Form Control and selecting Assign Macro.
It is worth noting that the macro is only executed after the control is released.
EG: If you have a macro linked to a Spin Button, If the Spin Button is held down and hence repeatedly increments its value, the macro will only be executed after the control is released.
Moving and Resizing Form Controls
You can move and resize form controls as with all other worksheet Objects.
Select the form control by right clicking on it
Use the handles to resize or drag the edges to move the controls
Hint: You can use Alt while dragging or resizing to snap the control to cell boundaries.
3D, Printing & Locking Form Controls
You can lock Form Controls as well as enable them to be printed or not
Right Clicking the control and select Format Control…
Use the Size, Protection and Properties Tabs as required.
The 3D option enables a 3D version of the Control instead of a flat control, which can add a bit of sparkle in some instances.
Limitations of Form Controls
Form controls offer a limited set of functions but do those functions very well.
Limitations are Form Controls:
- Form Controls can only increase or decrease by integer numbers
- Form Controls only return the index of an item in a list
- Form Controls have limited format properties (Font, Color etc)
What are the Active X Controls
Active X controls are like Form Controls on Steroids in that they have a much wider range of properties than Form Controls.
They also have much better ties to VBA in terms of programmability and have a number of events that can be accessed programmatically.
The main limitation of Active X controls are that they use a Microsft Active X component. This means that if you are sharing your workbook with an Apple Mac user using Excel for Mac these functions wont be available as Active X isn’t avilable on that Platform.
Workbooks with Form Controls will happily work on a an Apple Mac.
Other Controls Available in Excel
A number of other Excel objects can be used to add interactivity to your worksheets.
Shapes
These include:
- Shapes
- Charts
- Text Boxes
- Word Art
All these can have macro’s linked to them which effectively act the same as a Button Form Control without the moving button effect.
A stunning example of using Text Boxes was recently posted at: The Grammy Bump Chart
Where the Artists Stats Box (Top Left of Chart) is using several Text Boxes linked to cells to show the Selected Artsists Statistics.
HyperLinks
Inserting Hyperlinks at stratgic locations throughout worksheets provides a great way to simplify navigation around pages and between pages
Other Links
Where have you used Form Controls ?
Where have you used Form Controls?
Let us know in the comments below:
38 Responses to “Time to showoff your VBA skills – Help me fix ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert snafu”
I tried your code with 2003, it works.
But, I know Addpicture does not take URLs anymore with 2007 onwards, perhaps its the same with picture.insert as well.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928983/en-us
The above link gives the solution as "picture fill in a shape such as a rectangle".
Tried to recreate this, but it worked fine for me. I just took the image of the error you showed in the post. Is there more info that can narrow this down a bit?
Don't know if this helps?
http://www.theserverside.com/discussions/thread.tss?thread_id=47101
Hi
Not sure if this is what you're after, but I just tried this
Sub Macro1()
ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif").Select
End Sub
Tied a button to it on the sheet and it seems to work; hope this helps a little
Ian
@All.. the issue is in Excel 2007. In 2003 ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert seems to work fine. Unfortunately, I have design this in Excel 2007.. that is why I posted it here..
v2
Sub Macro1()
Set n = ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif")
With Range("c12")
t = .Top
l = .Left
End With
With n
.Top = t
.Left = l
End With
End Sub
Ian
That didn't come out very well. This positions at c12, so can change easily:
Sub Macro1()
Set n = ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif")
With Range("c12")
t = .Top
l = .Left
End With
With n
.Top = t
.Left = l
End With
End Sub
Works OK in 2007
Ian
The above codes work fines to my EXCEL 2007. Thanks.
Chandoo:
Try 'ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert'
With ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("C:\Example.png")
.Left = ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Left
.Top = ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Top
End With
activesheet.pictures.insert "C:\Documents and Settings\Jon Peltier\Desktop\2007 stuff\insert_charts_2007.png"
Works for me in 2003 SP3 and in 2007 SP2.
Check the URL, and make sure you have internet connectivity.
What also works, and is newer (pictures.insert was supposedly deprecated in '97):
activesheet.shapes.addpicture "C:\Documents and Settings\Jon Peltier\Desktop\2007 stuff\insert_charts_2007.png", false, true, 200,200,100,100
Unfortunately you must specify dimensions (the last four arguments) and you don't necessarily know them. But the picture size is still related back to the original picture size, so you could use scaleheight and scalewidth to fix this.
Chandoo: I just re-read your post.
The code I posted works for me. However, I'm using a local picture. If you try to add a picture from the web, this won't work.
I remember solving this problem before by adding a rectangle shape first, then using the Shapes.AddPicture method to get a picture from the web.
I'll find that code and post it here.
Some more updates... The code "ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert (path)" works fine in Excel 2007 at home. Strange it failed miserably on my work laptop. Do you think this has got something to do with SP2 of MS Office 2007 or something like that?
@Ian, Jon: Thanks for the code snippets. I guess I will use my home installation of excel to do this.
Chandoo:
Try this on your work laptop:
Sub test()
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle, 50, 50, 100, 200
ActiveSheet.Shapes(1).Fill.UserPicture _
"http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/images/dpwithPig6.png"
End Sub
FYI:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928983/en-us
I didn't mean to post code with a local file, because both approaches worked with an internet image as well. This is in Excel 2007 SP2.
activesheet.pictures.insert "http://peltiertech.com/images/2009-07/col_area_noblanks.png"
Jon: Looks like I have SP1 on my client machine! I wasn't paying attention.
Just checked my home computer where I have SP2, and you're right...looks like they fixed it.
I didn't even bother testing in SP1, though I could if anyone cares enough.
I'm afraid I don't have a solution, but I find it remarkable that after attaining a certain status in the Excel world, Chandoo does not need to post on an Excel discussion forum to get help for an Excel problem. Instead, he posts on his blog and all the gurus come rushing to his help.
Isn't Web 2.0 great?
Teylyn - I saw Chandoo's tweet first, and followed the link back to his blog.
@Mike.. thank you. I have seen the fill rectangle solution before posting the query here. For that matter, I have also tried the solution of embedding a browser control on a spreadsheet. both of these seemed a bit extreme. That is why I have asked it here.
But I guess I will end up using it if I had to build this in work laptop.
@Teylyn: I have thought of posting this in a forum. (Unfortunately I have not been to any excel group in the last 5 years. Last time I was active was when I built a jave based excel sheet construction solution using POI.HSSF classes of Apache... ) After searching for a few hours, I found several forum posts where others had same problem and the solution recommended (using .left and .top parameters) is not working for me. Incidentally most of these solutions are from a certain Jon Peltier 😛
I thought may be the problem is interesting for fellow blog readers. So I posted it here.
Hi,
Adapting the code in the question,
[code]
Sub InsPicture()
pPath = "http://chandoo.org/images/pointy-haired-dilbert-excel-charts-tips.png"
With ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath)
.Left = Range("a1").Left
.Top = Range("a1").Top
End With
End Sub
[/code]
Seems to work fine
Looks like it was a problem in 2007 up to SP1, which was corrected in SP2.
@Jon.. seems like the case. I just checked the version at work laptop. it is 12.0.6331.5000 (SP1).
Thank you so much every one. I really appreciate your time and suggestions in solving this.
Glad to help. I couldn't understand why something so straightforward wasn't working.
Hi All
Is there a way of inserting a motion clip eg animated gif or swf or flv?
Thks
You can insert animated GIFs by inserting them in a browser control through VBA. For other types of movies, I can guess you can insert them as clip art.
I WANT THE INSERT PICTURE BY USING COADING
so currently i was struggling same as you, chandoo, with the insert picture method in excel 2007/10 from an url and came along your thread here.
so i re-designed the code on the addshape method as mike was suggesting it and all of the sudden it works just fine.
thanks alot to you guys, you were a great help
a big salut from switzerland
Hi guys,
I need help copying and pasting an image with the path in a cell.
I leave the code.
And thank you very much!
Sub Copiarimg()
Dim pic As Picture
With ActiveSheet
Set pic = .Pictures.Insert(Range("f2").Value)
With .Range("e9:g22")
pic.Top = .Top
pic.Left = .Left
pic.Width = .Width
pic.Height = .Height
End With
End Sub
I've played around with the approaches in these comments, and the code below is what I've come up with. The ImagePath can be a local file or a URL. As Jon mentioned above, the trick is to set an arbitrary value for the width and height, then call the ScaleWidth and ScaleHeight methods afterward to reset the picture to its original size. Once the LockAspectRatio property is set, you can change the picture width and the height will automatically scale (or vice-versa).
Sub AddPictureToRange(TopLeftCellAddress As String, ImagePath As String)
Dim pic As Shape
Dim l As Single, t As Single
Dim temp As Single
l = Me.Range(TopLeftCellAddress).Left
t = Me.Range(TopLeftCellAddress).Top
temp = 10# ' arbitrary value
Set pic = Me.Shapes.AddPicture(ImagePath, msoFalse, msoTrue, l, t, temp, temp)
pic.ScaleHeight 1#, msoTrue
pic.ScaleWidth 1#, msoTrue
pic.LockAspectRatio = msoTrue
End Sub
I need some help with inserting pictures. I have an excel file with a column of item numbers next to this row I want to insert a picture of this item. The pictures are coded with the item number so I tried to insert it with one of the codes above:
Sub InsPicture()
pPath = "http://img.bricklink.com/P/80/55236.gif"
With ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath)
End With
End Sub
That worked but I need to do that for every row separtly.
So I tried in the code
pPath = "http://img.bricklink.com/P/80/"&Text(a1;"#")&".gif"
But that gives errors.
Anybody ideas?
Hi Nicholas, I used your solution in a related problem in Excel 2003 and it worked flawlessly..thank you!
Hi Mike Alexander,
Your solution with some changes was helpful in my problem in XL 2007, thanks.
Hi,
thanks all. In addition, I had a problem with multiple pictures inserting (every new picture replaced the prior one). I've changed it a bit, may be helpful..
Sub test()
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle, 50 , 50, 100, 200
ActiveSheet.Shapes(1).Fill.UserPicture _
"http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/images/dpwithPig6.png"
ActiveSheet.Shapes(1).Copy
ActiveSheet.Paste
End Sub
Try this instead:
Sub test()
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle, 50 , 50, 100, 200
ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture _
"http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/images/dpwithPig6.png"
End Sub
Thanks to everyone, this thread has been very helpful. However, image inserting still doesn't work quite as expect for me.
While I can get a picture inserted into an Excel 2010 worksheet using either:
1) ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture...
2) ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath), and
3) Shapes.AddPicture...
unfortunately the images all insert with a display size determined not by the actual pixel dimensions of the image but by the dpi resolution.
So for example, if I insert two copies of the exact same 600x600 pixel image, one with a 300dpi resolution and the other with 72dpi, they display at vastly different sizes on screen.
While this might be intended behaviour for Excel in order to maintain a WSYWIG printing layout, I actually need a way to insert the image based on the the actual pixel dimesnsions and ignoring the dpi resolution.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Kez
Not doing an intentional bump, but realised I posted in rely to one of the repsonses here instead of to the main thread, so reposting.
=====
Thanks to everyone, this thread has been very helpful. However, image inserting still doesn’t work quite as expected for me.
While I can get a picture inserted into an Excel 2010 worksheet using any of the below methods:
1) ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture....
2) ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath), and
3) Shapes.AddPicture....
unfortunately the images all insert with a display size determined not by the actual pixel dimensions of the image but by the dpi resolution.
So for example, if I insert two copies of the exact same 600×600 pixel image, one with a 300dpi resolution and the other with 72dpi, they display at vastly different sizes in Excel on screen.
While this might be intended behaviour for Excel in order to maintain a WYSIWYG printing layout, I actually need a way to insert the images based on the the actual pixel dimesnsions and ignoring the dpi resolution.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Kez
Well, answered my own question 🙂
For those who might be interested, you can use this function:
Public Function GetPicDims(strFilePath As String, strFileName As String) As String
GetPicDims = CreateObject("Shell.Application").Namespace((strFilePath)). _
ParseName(strFileName).ExtendedProperty("Dimensions")
End Function
to get the dimensions of the image you want to insert. Then you can parse the return string and use the width and height values to add a rectangle shape of the appropraite size, like:
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle 50, 50, iWidth, iHeight
which you then fill with the picture:
ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture "c:\temp\test.jpg"
This way the picture gets inserted using the pixel dimensions and the (print) resolution gets ignored.
If desired, the GetPicDims function can be made more generic to get other ExtendedProperties.
Regards
Kez